| Eugene Andrew Cernan (born March 14, 1934) is a former American astronaut. He has been into space three times: as co-pilot of Gemini 9A in June 1966; as lunar module pilot of Apollo 10 in May 1969; and as commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972. In that final lunar landing mission, Cernan became "the last man on the moon" since he was the last to re-enter the Apollo Lunar Module during its third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA). He was also a reserve crew member for the Gemini 12, Apollo 7 and Apollo 14 missions. A native of Chicago, Illinois, a son of a Czech mother and a Slovak father, received his father's name which was originally spelled as Ondrej ?er?an (read Ondrey Chernyan, IPA: [?ondr?j ?t??r?an]). Cernan grew up in the towns of Bellwood and Maywood. He graduated from Proviso East High School in Maywood, Illinois and Purdue University, where he became a member of Phi Gamma Delta, in 1956, with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He was commissioned into the US Navy through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps at Purdue, and became a Naval Aviator flying jets. He also holds a M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School. In 1976, Cernan retired both from the Navy (as a Captain) and from NASA, and went into private business. Reference |  |