Receiving an ensign’s commission along with his Princeton diploma in 1952, he served four years in the Navy (three years in the submarine service) before joining the Bechtel Corp. in the San Francisco area. Two years later he joined Lockheed Missiles and Space to work on the Polaris program for the first design of a submarine-based ballistic nuclear weapon. This led to an incredible career as a government scientist, which involved him in scientific breakthroughs such as the NASA Apollo moon landing, the joint Apollo Soyuz space mission with the Soviet Union, the design of the nation’s first petroleum reserve and, finally, the Energy Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy. This took him from California, to Florida, to Washington. During his career, he earned a law degree from Columbia Law School.
Sandy traveled widely in search of fine wines before he retired to Vallejo, Calif., where he died June 15, 2022, leaving his wife, Virginia; and two sons.