White Sands Missile Range Hall of Fame

Samuel Teitelbaum was born August 16, 1909. He attended schools in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the South Jersey Law School in Camden, New Jersey.

Teitelbaum became the White Sands comptroller in November 1952. Prior to that, he was the installation executive officer at Fort Wingate Ordnance Depot in Gallup, New Mexico.

When Teitelbaum arrived at White Sands, there was no central control for budgeting, cost accounting or manpower management. He was tasked by Proving Ground Commander Brigadier General George C. Eddy to establish a comptroller organization and to review and recommend ways money, manpower and materiel could best be used.

During his tenure, Teitelbaum developed a comptroller’s office with budget, manpower, auditing and cost accounting divisions. He developed and established a cost accounting system that could identify the use of funds to specific administrative costs and technical projects. When White Sands became a tri-service installation in 1952, he developed policies for cross- service agreements and accounting procedures.

Teitelbaum worked to promote White Sands and its importance to the nation’s defense. He worked side-by-side with White Sands scientists and engineers to modernize the range. His success in acquiring modernization funding contributed to making WSMR the best instrumented test range in the Free World.

He earned a reputation throughout the Department of Defense for establishing and maintaining an exceptional financial program. The comptroller’s organization he created at White Sands was used as a model, at other Department of Defense installations.

Teitelbaum retired from White Sands in 1971.

He died in March 1984.