Engineer. He was a successful American aeronautical and systems engineer who was called the "Architect of the Air." He ranked eighth in 2003 on the "Aviation Week & Space Technology" list of the top 100 "most important, most interesting, and most influential people" in the first century of aerospace. In 1938, he designed a new aircraft for the British Air Ministry. He gained a position at the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, an American aerospace manufacturer, becoming a part of the first "Skunk Works" team, which was formed before World War II, producing the P-38 Lightning in 1939. By 1955 he headed Lockheed's "Skunk Works" division, which has developed some of the most sophisticated military aircraft known, including the SR-71 "Blackbird" spy plane. In 1975 he received the Distinguished Intelligence Medal from the Central Intelligence Agency for his achievement in developing reconnaissance systems. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan presented him with the National Security Medal. Born Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson to a family of Swedish ancestry, his career started at the age of thirteen after receiving first place in a competition with his very first design. After graduating high school, he attended Charles Mott Junior College before entering the University of Michigan, receiving a master's degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 1933, and started with Lockheed the same year. He retired in 1975 from the position of Senior Vice President, but remained a director until 1980 and a senior advisor to Lockheed's "Skunk Works" for years thereafter. He married three times, being widowed twice. In 1937, Johnson married Althea Louise Young, who worked in Lockheed's accounting department; she died in December 1969. In May 1971, he married his secretary MaryEllen Elberta Meade (31 May 1934 - 13 Oct 1980) of New York; she died after a long illness. He married Meade's friend Nancy Powers Horrigan (12 Jun 1929 - 23 Apr 2014) in November 1980. He was buried next to his second wife. He had no children. He was a recognized genius, but the aging process deteriorated his brain with senility before the end. He published his autobiography, "Kelly: More Than My Share of it All," in 1985. He received a long list of honors and awards including the Wright Brothers' Medal in 1940, elected Aviation Man of the Year in 1956, the Collier Trophy in 1959 and again in 1964, and the National Medal of Science, presented by President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House in 1966. In 1965 he was one of the first 20 individuals, which included the Wright brothers and Jimmy Doolittle, to be included in the International Air & Space Hall of Fame.