Horton Guyford Stever was an American administrator, physicist, educator, and engineer. Stever was born on Oct. 24, 1916, in Corning, New York, United States. He received his B.A. degree in 1938 from Colgate University with a major in physics and minors in mathematics and chemistry. In 1941 he earned his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology with a major in physics and a minor in mathematics. He holds honorary degrees from eighteen universities, including Colgate, Northwestern, and Notre Dame. After the war, he joined M.I.T.'s faculty and worked on aerospace studies and guided missile research. In 1965 Stever left the position of Head of the Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering to become President of Carnegie-Mellon University. From 1972 to 1977 he served as Director of the National Science Foundation. From 1976 to 1977 he served as Science Advisor to the President of the United States. Stever has been active in Pittsburgh academic and civic organizations, and is a member of the IEEE, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.

Stever was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1965 and served as its foreign secretary from 1984 to 1988. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1973. Among his other honors Stever received the National Medal of Science in 1991 and the NSF Vannevar Bush Award in 1997. He is also the recipient of the President’s Certificate of Merit (1948); the Distinguished Public Service Medal from the Department of Defense (1968); and the Distinguished Public Service Medal from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (1988). He died on April 9, 2010 in Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States.