Mr. & Mrs. George and Irene Chandler at the foundation's 2006 annual gala

“We’re looking at trying to bring technical assistance to enterprises that might be knowledgeable in business but not in management skills or that maybe cannot obtain financial assistance,” he said.

Not only does Chandler, who joined the International Community Foundation board two and a half years ago, bring a wealth of knowledge from nearly 40 years in government service, he has built a network of contacts in numerous civic organizations, including the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business Development Center, and the Service Corps of Retired Executives.

He hopes to persuade those and other groups to collaborate with the International Community Foundation to help boost entrepreneurial ventures in Latin America, Asia, and, especially, Mexico.

Given the long string of successes Chandler has had during his career, it’s likely he and the foundation will accomplish the mission.

Reared in Knoxville, Tenn., Chandler went to the University of Tennessee to become a lawyer but then embraced electrical engineering because he liked math. He joined the Army and soon became involved with guided missile ordnance in Germany. When he left the military, he was hired by Ford Aerospace and remained in Germany to work on an Air Force contract.

After Ford assigned Chandler to work with NASA on flight control for Project Mercury, the first human spaceflight program of the United States, he took a permanent job with the space administration. While at NASA, he also worked on Project Gemini, served as mission engineer on a number of Apollo flights and was involved with the space stations.

The Apollo program, undertaken by NASA from 1961 to 1975 with the goal of conducting manned moon landing missions and accomplished on July 20, 1969, by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during the Apollo 11 mission, is often cited as the greatest achievement in human history.

“I was involved up to my eyeballs in Apollo,” Chandler said. “That was the height of my career.”

During his time at the space agency, he earned a master’s of management science at the MIT Sloan School of Management and that background helped him run NASA’s Scientific and Technical Information Program, which published 8,000 titles a year and collected 6,000 titles from around the world. He also oversaw an early version of technology that made online computer searches possible.

Still, he said, “There were some other things I wanted to do.”

A desire to stay in government service, a friendship with an employee who had worked for the Small Business Administration, and an opening at the SBA office in San Diego – a locale he loved – all combined to land him the job of SBA district director for San Diego and Imperial counties in 1980.

Over the next two and a half decades, he shepherded the growth of the agency’s small, little known San Diego office into a top performer in terms of loans, counseling and training, and landing contracts for entrepreneurs. Chandler was at ground zero for the launch of thousands of entrepreneurial ventures, aiding the liftoffs of countless bakeries, beauty shops, and bookstores in the region.

He attributed his success to convincing financial institutions to provide loans, and organizations to lend their efforts to a host of small business-related initiatives.

By the time Chandler left the job, his SBA office ranked at the top of the agency’s 68 districts across the United States.

After he moved into retirement in September 2005, he looked for a way to support small business internationally, a desire that led him to the International Community Foundation in early 2006.

“What a great organization,” Chandler said.

“I’m interested in all of what the International Community Foundation does, and it’s a wonderful opportunity to assist in many different ways,” he said.

Given his background, he’s particularly keen on contributing to efforts to spur economic and community development in all the spheres on which the foundation focuses – entrepreneurship, environment, education, culture, and, more recently, health initiatives.

“The amount of resources we can bring to bear can have enormous impact,” Chandler said. “It’s been a real pleasure to be associated with the International Community Foundation. And I feel fortunate to be involved.”

Written by: Diane Lindquist

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