David M. Brown
David McDowell Brown (April 16, 1956 – February 1, 2003) was a United States Navy captain and a NASA astronaut. He died on his first spaceflight, when the Space Shuttle "Columbia" (STS-107) disintegrated during orbital reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. Brown became an astronaut in 1996, but had not served on a space mission prior to the "Columbia" disaster. Brown was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
Brown, the 1986 recipient of the Navy Operational Flight Surgeon of the Year award, received numerous decorations including:
The symbol indicates a posthumous award.
Columbia, Kentucky
The Columbia Bypass was opened to the public on October 7, 2008 featuring a traffic light at the intersection of the bypass and North 55 as well as a traffic light at the intersection of South 61. The bypass has relieved a majority of the downtown traffic.Columbia, Kentucky was depicted in the film "Resurrection Mary" starring Wilford Brimley in 2002. The film was directed by another Columbia native, Matthew Eric Arnold as part of the USC School of Cinematic Arts graduate thesis program and won awards at the Big Bear Lake International Film Festival. The filming was featured on local news stations and in "USA Today".