North Carolina Agricultural and Technical's alumni base is around 55,000 strong.[1] These alumni have excelled in fields ranging from education, civic leadership, activism, to athletic; and spread the Aggie tradition throughout the nation such as Ronald McNair, former NASA Astronaut who perished on the ill-fated Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, graduated magna cum laude from the university with a degree in engineering physics in 1971.[112] Some alumni are notable for being pioneers in their fields, such as Former Chief of the United States Army Nurse Corps Clara Leach Adams-Ender, who was the first woman to receive her master's degree in military arts and sciences from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and also the first African-American nurse corps officer to graduate from the United States Army War College.[113]