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Personality Spotlight;NEWLN:John Glenn: always reaching for the pinnacle

John Glenn's life has been made of the excitement, adventure and heroics that kids -- and their parents -- dream of.

Student leader, three-sport letterman, Marine combat pilot with a chest full oF medals, astronaut, the first American to orbit Earth, business tycoon, U.S. senator.

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But never president of the United States, the pinnacle he sought to cap his life.

After 16 months on the campaign trail, Glenn reluctantly brought his quest for the White House to an end, broke and deeply in debt.

Voters in a series of primaries rejected him and his message of centrist politics. Glenn's appeal to the moderate mainstream failed to elicit a response.

In many ways, Glenn's life has been a true Horatio Alger story from depression day childhood to the high reaches of American politics and power.

Glenn, now 62, was born and raised in the small Ohio communities of Cambridge and New Concord.

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His father, who never went past the sixth grade, was a railroad conductor and owned a plumbing business. His mother was a school teacher.

Glenn recalls now that in the deepest days of the Depression, family finances were tight and he earned walking-around money washing dishes and cars.

Even then he was considered somewhat strait-laced, a characteristic that has followed him through life and also was depicted in 'The Right Stuff,' the book and movie about test pilots and the first astronauts.

At small Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, Glenn developed a passion for flying, leaving school to join the Naval Aviation Cadet Program in 1942. Twenty years later, the school awarded him a degree.

Glenn joined the Marine Corps in l942, rising to the rank of colonel before he retired in l965. He flew countless missions as a fighter pilot, winning five Distinguished Flying Crosses and 18 Air Medals in World War II and Korea.

Glenn, who made the military a career, says that war 'sears your soul' and recalls the agonizing days when he had to write letters to the wives and children of men under his command who were killed in action.

After the war, Glenn became a test pilot, making the first non-stop, coast-to-coast supersonic flight in history and then became one of the seven astronauts in the Project Mercury program.

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On Feb. 20, l962, Glenn, dressed in a silver suit, climbed into Friendship 7 and became the first American to orbit Earth, circling three times before splashing down.

After retiring from the Marine Corps, Glenn became a vice president of the Royal Crown Cola Co. and made substantial investments in hotel and motel ventures.

Glenn, encouraged by the Kennedys, sought a Senate seat in l964, a campaign that ended abruptly after a fall in his apartment bathroom. In l970, he lost a second race.

But he won in 1974 and in l980 he rolled to a 69 percent victory even as President Reagan and Republicans were putting together a landslide.

Glenn has never been a standout in the Senate. He is regarded as a model of integrity but also as a one-issue politician, switching from an early interest in energy to a broad interest in foreign affairs. He is best known for leading the fight for passage of nuclear non-proliferation legislation.

Never a member of the inner circle, Glenn is a hard worker who has not mastered the give and take of Senate life.

Glenn married his childhood sweetheart, Anna Margaret Castor, in 1942 and they have two children.

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