Eugene L Duret was born in Creelman, Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1925. He served as Navigator on Lancaster bombers with the Royal Canadian Air Force.

After studying Physics at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, he worked with Avro Canada from 1955, specialising in heat transfer aspects of the Avro Arrow. The cancellation of the Arrow program in 1959 led to his joining NASA’s Space Task Group at Langley Field, Virginia.

Mr Duret was involved in the setting up of the Mercury Tracking Network.

During the program, he served as

California Capcom for MA-4 (unmanned test flight)
Kano Capcom for MA-6 (John Glenn)
Indian Ocean Ship Capcom for MA-7 (Scott Carpenter)
and Muchea Capcom for MA-8 (Wally Schirra).

Mr. Duret continued his heat transfer work in the development of heatshields for the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft, in the Flight System Division Heat Transfer Section under Leonard Rabb. Others in that section included John Llewellyn. (1)

After leaving NASA in 1965, he returned to Canada, engaged in research, eventually becoming a Physics instructor at Humber College in Toronto. He died in 1985.

(With thanks to Chris Gainor for most of the above information.)

Eugene L. Duret, Capcom at Kano (KNO) Nigeria, during Friendship 7, 20 February 1962. Screenshot by Colin Mackellar, from the NASA film “Friendship 7”.

At the Kano (KNO) Flight Control Console, during Friendship 7, 20 February 1962. Left to right: Cyrus Rumbaugh (Kano Systems), Eugene L. Duret (Kano Capcom), and Dr. Clyde Kratochvil (Aeromedical Monitor). Screenshot by Colin Mackellar, from the NASA film “Friendship 7”.

 

References:

1. The Birth of NASA by Manfried von Ehrenfried, Springer, 2016. pages 66 and 67.