"The ultimate engineer" - a George M. Low biography - at least !

[libra]

As said in the tin. 35 years after this unsung hero death, at least a good biography of him has been published.
https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/university-of-nebraska-press/9780803299559/

George Low played an enormously important role at every single crucial juncture in early NASA HSF history.

He was already there in 1960, successfully pushing for a Moon landing.

Somewhat ironically considering the above - He was key in sending an Apollo around the Moon without a lander, in 1968.

He was NASA deputy administrator at another crucial juncture, the hectic transition from Apollo to Shuttle, and stayed until 1976.

What is pretty astonishing is that, unlike all the major, key players in Apollo (Von Braun,  MSC Houston, Headquarters, managers, astronauts...) he gave little interviews, no oral history, he was shy and fled the spotlight all his life.
He even eluded Roger Launius and John Logsdon space historians - they were of course perfectly aware of his role, but never got a chance for a thorough interview. Even in After Apollo Logsdon quotes of Low are (unvariably) his personal notes and only that. It seems nobody ever got a thorough oral history with Low when he was alive.

He kept his roles and actions to himself, taking copious personal notes that were extremely detailed. Whatever he intended to do with those personal notes, his life was cut short by melanoma in July 1984, only weeks after he was to chair what become Pioneering the Space frontier - the job went to Tom Paine instead.

So this biography, 35 years after his death, is very important.

Some weird aspects of Low life: his family fled Anschluss in 1938 to Switzerland, GB, and the United States. Three decades later he had to work with von Braun yet he did not really cared.

George Low's father died of cancer in 1934, he died of cancer in 1984, his son and astronaut George David also died of cancer in 2008.  Makes one think.