He was head of NASA’s Aerospace Test Pilot School. And says in his autobiography that he wasn’t selected for astronaut training because he didn’t go to college.
And nobody’s perfect!
I must find the book where that chimpanzee quote comes from.
I read that he was offered a position with NASA at the very start of the space program, his reply was ” you wont get me in a spam can with chimpanzee sh!t on the seat” which sums up his forward thinking.