Malcolm Ross ( balloonist ) Malcolm David Ross ( born October 15 , 1919 in Momence , Illinois ; died October 8 , 1985 in Birmingham , Michigan ) was a captain in the United States Naval Reserve ( USNR ) , an atmospheric scientist , and a balloonist who set several records for altitude and scientific inquiry , with more than 100 hours flight time in gas balloon s by 1961 . Along with Lieutenant Commander Victor A . Prather ( USN ) , he set the altitude record for a manned balloon flight . Life . Malcolm Ross was born on October 15 , 1919 in Momence , Illinois , the son of Mr . and Mrs . J . R . Ross of 1825 Garden Street , West Lafayette , Indiana . He spent most of his early life in West Lafayette . He graduated from Linden High School in Montgomery County , Indiana , in 1936 . Malcolm Ross received a scholarship to attend Purdue University to study civil engineering . While at Purdue , he worked at the campus radio station as a sports announcer and changed his major to creative writing , communication , and radio . However , Malcolm Ross graduated from Purdue in June 1941 with a BS in physics . After college , he married his high school sweetheart , Marjorie Martin , and took broadcasting jobs in Anderson , Chicago , and Indianapolis . In January 1943 , Ross was commissioned as an ensign in the United States Naval Reserve . After he completed two months training at the Quonset Point Naval Air Station in Rhode Island , the Navy sent him to graduate school for nine months training in physics and general meteorology at the University of Chicago . In June 1944 , he completed the training with a professional certificate in meteorology and atmospheric science . The Navy initially assigned Ross to the Fleet Weather Center at Pearl Harbor . Later he served as the aerology officer aboard the USS Saratoga while it was flying missions against Tokyo and Iwo Jima in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II , from 1944 to 1945 . Ross received a campaign star in his Pacific Theater Ribbon for the first carrier plane strike at Tokyo in February 1945 and for the Iwo Jima invasion . After World War II ended , Ross was released from the military . He returned to civilian life and opened an advertising agency in Pasadena , California , where his wife , Marjorie , had moved during World War II . Marjorie worked in the agency as the office manager . The business continued successfully until June 1950 , when Ross was recalled to active duty as a lieutenant in the United States Naval Reserve for the Korean War . Initially , Malcolm Ross was stationed as an instructor in radiological defense for the Naval Damage Control Training Center at Treasure Island , in San Francisco . From there he was able to commute home during weekends to spend time with his family and maintain the advertising business . This came to an end when in 1951 the Navy reassigned Ross to work as the liaison officer for the Office of Naval Research in Minneapolis . The Navy ' s unmanned balloon program , Project Skyhook , was based in Minneapolis , which was also a center of balloon research and development being carried out by the University of Minnesota and General Mills . In 1953 , Ross was transferred to the air branch of the Office of Naval Research ( ONR ) in Washington , D . C . as Balloon Projects Director . In this position , he began to direct high - altitude balloon projects to obtain cosmic ray and meteorological data with the Project Skyhook program , working with Ruby Ward as the contracts negotiator of the ONR . Ross was technical director for Project Churchy , an expedition to the Galápagos Islands to obtain cosmic ray and meteorological data from balloon flights . He arranged for balloon launchings at Goodfellow Air Force Base in 1954 and 1955 . He was a member of the scientific group that launched balloons for the ONR at Saskatoon , Canada , and photographed the 1954 eclipse of the sun from a Skyhook balloon over Minneapolis . During his tour as ONR ' s Balloon Projects Officer , Ross initiated the Navy ' s manned balloon program , Project Strato - Lab , in 1954 . The Strato - Lab program utilized the new plastic high - altitude balloons for upper atmosphere research . At this time , Ross became the first active duty military officer qualified and licensed as a free balloon pilot based solely on plastic balloon experience . Ross went on inactive duty in 1955 as a Lieutenant Commander ( USNR ) . As a physicist in the Air Branch of the ONR , Ross specialized in the physics of the upper atmosphere and participated in Strato - Lab flights both as a civilian and as a naval officer . As the key participant in Project Strato - Lab , he spent more than 100 hours with scientists and other balloonists making observations in the stratosphere . At the time of the record - setting flight in 1961 , Malcolm Ross was a Commander in the Naval Reserve . In 1957 , Ross received the Navy League ' s newly established Rear Admiral William S . Parsons Award for Scientific and Technical Progress , and the Navy ' s Meritorious Civilian Service Award . In 1958 , jointly with Lieutenant Commander Lewis , he received the Harmon International Trophy ( Aeronaut ) for the November 8 , 1956 , record - breaking flight ( see below ) . In 1962 , jointly with Victor Prather , he received the Harmon Trophy again for the record - holding flight in 1961 to . Ross never flew in balloons again after the 1961 flight , although he continued to advocate using balloons as relatively inexpensive platforms for scientific investigations . Malcolm Ross retired from the US Naval Reserve as a captain on July 1 , 1973 . After leaving the Office of Naval Research , Malcolm Ross worked in space research at General Motors . Later on he became a stock brokerage executive for Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner and Smith , Inc . and served as assistant vice president and account executive at the Bloomfield Hills branch . Malcolm Ross died at home in Birmingham , Michigan , and is buried at the Arlington National Cemetery . Balloon flights . The following table describes Malcolm Ross ' s balloon flights .