Richard Keith Singleton Richard " Dick " Keith Singleton , credited as Dick Singleton , was a supervisor of development and construction of space ship scale miniatures and special effects components for . He was brought in on the movie in the spring of 1978 by Robert Abel to head the studio model filming facility of Astra Image Corporation , the subsidiary of the original for the movie , Robert Abel & Associates ( RA & A ) . One of the first models he handled was the travel pod model as his Astra colleague Andrew Probert remembered , recalling a humorous incident , " " Dick Singleton was the head of the Seward facility , and he took it down proudly to Stage 9 , were they were shooting the full - scale mock - up and all the " Enterprise " interiors . Everybody was pleased and impressed with the miniature , but James Doohan looked at it and said it was inaccurate as far as he was concerned , because he has one of his fingers missing and the Scotty in the model had all of his fingers . Everybody got a good laugh out of that and I think perhaps Dick even removed a piece of a finger from the miniature Doohan " " ( " " , p . 203 ) Due to the in late February 1979 , RA & A and its subsidiary were released from the movie on 22 February and the staff given their notice . However , Singleton was rehired as modelhandler by Apogee , Inc . the subsequent month for whom he among others handled the " K ' t ' inga " - class model . Singleton also made the glowing light on the neck of character Ilia and cooperated in the build of the large exterior " V ' ger " model , while at Apogee . On behalf of his new employer , Singleton became concurrently responsible for hiring additional production illustrators and graphics artists for " The Motion Picture " , which included Greg Wilzbach and Leslie Ekker , the latter of which describing Singleton as a " wonderful guy " . ( " " , p . 200 ) Career outside " Star Trek " . Hailing from Oakland , California , Dick Singleton entered the United States Coast Guard for Reserve duty on 1 December 1953 until honorably discharged 12 June 1959 . He subsequently became a draftsman and mechanical engineer , working for a succession of corporations and government institutions , designing equipment until 1963 . In 1963 Singleton decided to direct his designing skills into a more artistic direction , and to this end he entered the Art Center College of Design , Los Angeles , California . As it so happened this was also the alma mater of some of his future " The Motion Picture " co - workers , which included , aside from the above - mentioned Probert and Ekker ( the latter of whom he had hired for the movie ) , Mark Stetson as well as former " Star Trek " alumnus William Ware Theiss and future alumni Gary Hutzel and Dana White . He graduated from the college in 1967 . He subsequently founded his own Industrial Design Company in Beverly Hills in 1968 , designing and building industrial traveling show exhibits , point of purchase exhibits , permanent corporate and museum exhibits as well as product , prototype , architectural , presentation and analysis models . During that period in time , NASA had been one of his clients . He closed down his company in 1978 , becoming an independent contractor . Being hired by Astra for " The Motion Picture " turned out to be Singleton ' s first and only recorded start in the motion picture industry , though it is known that he had already provided services to the industry as early as 1974 as propmaker for the movie " The Mackintosh Man " . After his stint at Apogee , he continued to work for the motion picture industry for another five years as a special project , model and effects supervisor , having worked on such movies as " 2010 " ( 1984 ) while subcontracted by Douglas Trumbull ' s Entertainment Effects Group . Due to the fact that Singleton , as subcontractor , has virtually never received an official credit , the total extent of his contributions to the industry is unknown , " The Motion Picture " being the sole recorded one . His children reported that " 2010 " had been the last motion picture he had contributed to . From 1985 to 1995 , Singleton resumed his career as he had started out as , being a production designer for a succession of corporations . From 1995 however , his designing career took a turn for the worse , as he found his services no longer in need and commissions started to dwindle , which he himself attributed to age discrimination . In 2000 , Singleton was working as a Pinkerton security guard when he was suddenly struck by a massive cardiac arrest , to which he succumbed . He ashes were scattered on the island of Maui Hawaii a few miles from the summit of Haleakala . Having been married twice , Singleton was survived by two children , son Leland and daughter Wendy , by his first wife .