John Sumter Bull was a U.S. Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 test pilot, aeronautical engineer, and a NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 astronaut

Astronaut

An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....

.

Bull attended primary and secondary schools in Memphis, Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

, and graduated in 1952 from Central High School

Central High School (Memphis, Tennessee)

Central High School is a public high school in Memphis, Tennessee. Since it was founded in the early 1900s and is considered the first high school in Memphis; Central is often called "THE" High School. It is a part of the Memphis City Schools Optional School system where it is recognized as a...

. He received a bachelor of science

Bachelor of Science

A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

 degree in Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical engineering

Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...

 from Rice University

Rice University

William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...

 in 1957 before joining the Navy in June of that same year. Bull was a Navy fighter pilot with the VF-114

VF-114

Fighter Squadron 114 was a fighter squadron of the United States Navy that was active from 1945 through 1993. Nicknamed the "Aardvarks", it was based out of Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia. The squadron flew combat missions during the Korean War and Vietnam War...

 squadron aboard the carriers USS Ranger, USS Hancock

USS Hancock (CV-19)

USS Hancock was one of 24 s built during World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was the fourth US Navy ship to bear the name, and was named for John Hancock, president of the Second Continental Congress and first governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts...

, and USS Kitty Hawk

USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63)

The supercarrier USS Kitty Hawk , formerly CVA-63, was the second naval ship named after Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the site of the Wright brothers' first powered airplane flight...

. He graduated from the Naval Test Pilot School in February 1964 and was selected as a member of the "Original 19" astronaut candidate group in 1966.

After briefly serving as a member of the Apollo 8

Apollo 8

Apollo 8, the second manned mission in the American Apollo space program, was the first human spaceflight to leave Earth orbit; the first to be captured by and escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first crewed voyage to return to Earth from another celestial...

 support crew as well as crew leader during vacuum-chamber Lunar Module testing, Bull resigned from the astronaut corps after learning that he was suffering from pulmonary disease.