Walter M. Jefferies

Walter M. "Matt" Jefferies was born in 1921, in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. From an early age, he became obsessed with flight. During World War II, he was a B-17 co-pilot in Europe and Africa; for his service, he received the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. After World War II, he became an illustrator at the Library of Congress. After some freelance illustration work in the 1950s, he was hired as a set designer at Warner Bros. But the 1960s is when he made his mark. In 1964, Gene Roddenberry approached Matt to design the ship for a new TV series: Star Trek (1966). The final design of the original Starship Enterprise became the template for nearly all of the Federation ships featured in Star Trek ever since. In his honor, the crawl spaces on Star Trek are called "Jefferies Tubes." He passed away on July 21, 2003, of congestive heart failure, after a fight with cancer.