On the anniversary of the Apollo 1 tragedy, Michigan remembers the hero native who perished in a pre-launch test in a program that eventually put the first man on the moon. A Grand Rapids native was part of the historic effort to put a man on the moon. While he would never leave earth's orbit, one could argue that the U.S. would not have won the race to the moon had it not been for the three brave men who perished on Apollo 1. Roger B. Chaffee was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on February 15, 1935. According to Wikipedia, he became an Eagle Scout and accepted a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps scholarship after graduating from Central High School in 1953. Chaffee attended the Illinois Institute of Technology before transferring to Purdue University and earning his pilot's license.