Eugene "Gene" Wesley Roddenberry

 Eugene "Gene" Wesley Roddenberry (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991)

He is best remembered for having created the original Star Trek television series and thus the Star Trek science fiction franchise. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, California where his father worked as a police officer. Roddenberry flew 89 combat missions in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, and worked as a commercial pilot after the war. Later he followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Los Angeles Police Department to provide for his family, but began to focus on writing scripts for television. As a freelance writer, Roddenberry wrote scripts for Highway Patrol, Have Gun–Will Travel, and other series, before creating and producing his own television series The Lieutenant. In 1964, Roddenberry created Star Trek, which premiered in 1966 and ran for three seasons before being canceled. Syndication of Star Trek led to increasing popularity, and Roddenberry continued to create, produce, and consult on the Star Trek films and the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation until his death. In 1985 he became the first TV writer with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In the late 1980s Roddenberry was likely afflicted by the first manifestations of cerebral vascular disease and encephalopathy as a result of his longstanding "Valley of the Dolls type" of recreational abuse of legal and illicit drugs, including alcohol, marijuana, Valium, Seconal, Ritalin, Dexamyl, and cocaine (which he had used regularly since the production of Star Trek: The Motion Picture). The effects of these substances were compounded by deleterious interactions with diabetes, high blood pressure, and antidepressant prescriptions.

Following a September 1989 stroke at a family reunion in Tallahassee, Florida, Roddenberry's health declined further, ultimately leaving him confined to a wheelchair by 1991. By the fourth season of The Next Generation, he seldom appeared at the show's offices. He died from cardiopulmonary arrest on October 24, 1991 at age 70. In 1992, a portion of Roddenberry's ashes flew and returned to earth on the Space Shuttle Columbia mission STS-52. On April 21, 1997, a Celestis spacecraft — carrying portions of the cremated remains of Roddenberry, of Timothy Leary and of 22 other people — was launched into Earth orbit aboard a Pegasus XL rocket from near the Canary Islands.