Trevor Gardner Trevor Gardner ( 24 August 1915 - 28 September 1963 ) was Assistant Secretary of the U . S . Air Force for Research and Development during the early 1950s . Together with Bernard Schriever , the Air Staff ' s Assistant for Development Planning , Gardner was one of the prime movers of the U . S . ICBM program and was also involved in the U - 2 program . Early life and career . Gardner was born in Cardiff , Wales , on 24 August 1915 . He moved to the United States in 1928 and became a naturalized citizen in 1937 . He received a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the University of Southern California in 1937 . He returned to the University of Southern California to teach freshman mathematics while obtaining his masters degree in business administration which he was awarded in 1939 . World War II . During World War II Gardner ' s work at the California Institute of Technology focused on rocket and atomic bomb projects for the Office of Scientific Research and Development . With the end of World War II , Gardner became associated with General Tire and Rubber Company of California as general manager and executive vice president . Three years later he left to found Hycon Manufacturing Co . , an electronics manufacturer . He was president of Hycon until February 1953 when he became the Secretary of the Air Force ' s Special Assistant for Research and Development . Involvement with ICBM program . U . S . President Dwight D . Eisenhower began his first term by initiating a defense policy that sought to significantly reduce spending . Gardner was asked to lead a committee and implement an economy program to reduce missile development activities . Its final report recommended that promising missile projects should be continued . The Atlas , under development since 1951 , was America ' s best hope , however its development had been constrained by the Air Force due to the belief that missiles required too great an investment in systems that seemed " impossible ' " Impatient , Gardner requested a scientific review of all Air Force missile programs in April 1953 . The impetus came from two directions . First , he was concerned over the growing Soviet threat and , in August 1953 , they exploded a hydrogen bomb . The other trend was the development of lighter nuclear weapons . The " impossible " ICBM was now much more possible . In October 1953 Gardner established a second committee — the Teapot Committee — to review the Air Force ' s strategic missiles — the Snark , Navaho , and Atlas . He directed the committee to find ways to accelerate the development of the Atlas . The committee issued its report on 10 February 1954 . Its thrust called for a " radical reorganization of the . . . [ Atlas ] project considerably transcending the Convair framework " Gardner developed a five - year plan to accelerate the Atlas which would yield a " preliminary capability " by June 1958 . In early 1955 most of the Eisenhower administration assumed that America had a strong lead over the Soviet Union in strategic technology and felt no particular urgency for the ICBM programs . The Killian Report indicated that America was becoming vulnerable and that the ICBM should be given the " highest priority . " While an Air Force priority , he believed that ICBMs must also be a national priority . He indicated that the U . S . could have a rudimentary ICBM by mid - 1958 if the program was conducted on a crash basis . Eisenhower requested a briefing and , on 28 July 1955 , Gardner , von Neumann , and Schriever made a presentation to the President and the National Security Council . As a result the National Security Council recommended the ICBM be designated a " research program of the highest priority " which the President approved on 13 September 1955 . Gardner had achieved his goal . In January 1955 the Scientific Advisory Committee urged the Air Force to develop a tactical ballistic missile . All three services developed plans and the interservice rivalry led to a compromise with the Air Force building the Thor and the Army and Navy in charge of the Jupiter . Gardner viewed this approach as dangerous since the IRBM could drain resources from the ICBM and threaten its early delivery . His fears were realized when President Eisenhower assigned the ICBM and the IRBM " joint " highest national priority . The ICBM program no longer had a unique status . Trevor Gardner felt betrayed and resigned his position in protest on 10 February 1956 . Return to public life . After the election in 1960 Gardner again became active in public life . He served on the President ' s Space Task Force Commission to review the nation ' s space program and also chaired the U . S . Air Force Space Task Force . He also became involved in preventing the use of weapons . Gardner played a major role in establishing the U . S . Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and was named to its General Advisory Commission on 1 March 1962 . At the time of his death on 28 September 1963 in his home in Washington , D . C . , Gardner was actively participating in Project Forecast , which was to chart the future course of the Air Force for the next decade . Gardner died on 28 September 1963 . Gardner was honored by the U . S . Air Force as an Air Force Space and Missile Pioneer in 1997 .