Eugene "Gene" Kranz is an American aerospace engineer who worked for the U.S. Air Force and NASA. He is most notably known as the Flight Director for the Apollo 13 mission, where the oxygen tank partially exploded enroute to the Moon. Gene's leadership abilities helped the Apollo 13 crew return to Earth safely against all odds. He is from Toledo, Ohio.

This NASA photo shows Flight Director Kranz at his console in the Mission Control Center at Houston on May 30, 1965.

At the Ohio Statehouse, Kranz is pictured in the oil painting, "Ohioans in Space," along with some of the astronauts from Ohio who he worked with as Flight Director. Kranz was named a Great Ohioan in 2024.