American Astronaut. Frank Frederick Borman II was an exceptional student who attended Sam Hughes Elementary School in Tucson and Tucson High School as an honor student. He graduated from West Point with his Bachelor of Science degree on June 6, 1950, ranked eighth in his class of 670. He was highly motivated and chose to be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force (USAF) on June 2, 1950. He was named after his paternal grandfather and was of German descent. His passion for space exploration led him to NASA, where he was selected for his first position with NASA on September 17, 1962, as part of the Next Nine, which would assist the Mercury Seven. Despite being initially selected as the copilot on the backup crew for Gemini 3, he didn't get a chance to fly on this mission. However, he didn't let this setback hold him back and eventually became the command pilot of the Gemini 7 mission on December 4, 1965. He was later chosen to take part in the Apollo program on the Apollo 8 mission, where he became one of the first humans to leave low Earth orbit and reach the Moon. His unwavering determination and dedication to space exploration led him to spend a total of 19 days 21 hours and 35 minutes in space. His impressive career earned him many awards, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Congressional Space Medal of Honor, NASA Distinguished Service Medal, and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal. After retiring from NASA and the Air Force in 1970, Borman became senior vice president for operations at Eastern Air Lines, and in 1975 he became their chief executive officer. He resigned from Eastern in 1986. He passed away from a stroke at the Billings Clinic in Billings Montana at 95.