William E. Brunk (born November 24, 1928) is an American retired astronomer and NASA administrator.
[1] William E. Brunk was born in Cleveland, Ohio on November 24, 1928.
[2] He was educated at high school in Cleveland, Ohio and attended the local Case Institute of Technology in 1948, gaining a B.S.
Brunk returned to the Case Institute in 1963 to earn his Ph.D. in astronomy, before accepting the position of staff scientist for the Voyager mission (1964-1965).
He was then acting Chief (1965) and later Program Chief of Planetary Astronomy at NASA headquarters (1965-1982), where he played an important role in the construction of the 2.6-m reflector at the McDonald Observatory and the Infrared Telescope Facility at Mauna Kea.