Alan Bean, 4th Person to Walk on the Moon, Dies at 86: 'Kindest Man I Ever Knew,' Says Wife of 40 Years

Alan Bean, the fourth man to walk on the moon, has died at the age of 86.

“Alan was the strongest and kindest man I ever knew. He was the love of my life and I miss him dearly,” Alan’s wife Leslie, to whom he was married for 40 years, said in the statement.

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Bean flew into space twice, first in November 1969 as the pilot of Apollo 12, when he became the fourth man to walk on the moon, nabbing the honor behindNeil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Pete Conrad, who served as the commander of Apollo 12. Four years later, Bean also served as commander of NASA’s second crewed mission to the Skylab station, where he and two other crew members orbited Earth for a then-record breaking 59 days.

In 1981, after logging more than 25 million miles of spaceflight, he retired at the age of 49 as head of the NASA astronaut training group tobecome an artist.

“Most of my colleagues were really surprised,” he told PEOPLE at the time. “My boss asked if I could make a living off art, and I said I didn’t know, but I had to find out. It has become my dream.”

Much like his former career as an astronaut, Bean spent his years as an artist creating detail-oriented moonscapes, which could be tricky to getjustright.

“It all looks the same there,” he explained. “You can’t tell how far away things are because there’s no atmosphere to bounce the light around. The surface has much more brown to it than photographs show. And the sky is always black.”

NASA also went on to share a short video tribute to his momentous career.

source: people.com