Remembering Robert Seamans Jr., a NASA and Energy Department pioneer

Rpbert C. Seamans Jr., the retired MIT professor who died last week, was best-known as a NASA manager who drove the Apollo moon-landing program. But Seamans, of Beverly Farms, also was the insightful head of the nation's energy department after the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s.

On his first day on the energy job, Seamans said: "There is no way we can become self-sufficient in 10 years or any time in the future if we keep increasing the use of energy.''

On that day in 1974, according to yesterday's New York Times obituary, he emphasized making vehicles that got 40 percent better gas mileage and designing buildings much less expensive to heat and cool. A report from his Energy Research and Development Administration directed "the highest priority'' go to energy conservation.

To read the Globe's obituary on Seamans, who was 89, click here. His 1996 autobiography, "Aiming at Targets,'' produced with NASA's history series, also is available online. Click here to read it.