Tem Ray

Tem Ray is the father of Gundam pilot Amuro Ray, from the original Gundam series.

Background
Tem Ray was an engineer working with the Earth Federation on the V Project, a military armaments plan to create the Federation's first prototype Mobile Suits. Born on Earth and previously married to Kamaria Ray, Tem left his wife and moved with his son Amuro to Side 7, a space colony which also served as a secret base for the Federation. There, he began working on the design and construction of the Federation's prototype Mobile Suits and was to oversee their transport to Earth.

However, the Principality of Zeon learned of the Mobile Suits within Side 7, and a small team was sent to destroy the Mobile Suits before they could be loaded aboard the White Base carrier. In the ensuing chaos and evacuation of the colony, Tem's son commandeered the second Gundam unit constructed in the colony and fought the Zeon's Zakus. The resulting explosion caused by one of the Zakus' reactors being destroyed blew a large hole in the body of the colony, and Tem, unequipped for extended time in outer space, was sucked out into the vacuum, apparently to his death.

Tem Ray managed to survive the accident and was taken to the neutral colony of Side 6; however, the extended period of time he was in space led him to suffer from oxygen deprivation, wrecking his mind and leaving him delusional and prone to mood swings. When Amuro meets his father on Side 6, he congratulates his son on a job well done and gives him a piece of circuitry that he claims would drastically increase the Gundam's power; however, Amuro recognized it as nothing more than a useless piece of junk.

Tem's final fate is left ambiguous -- he watches the battle just outside of Side 6's space and celebrates his creation's victory over Zeon forces before stumbling head-first down the stairwell that lead to his apartment. It's unknown whether the fall kills him or simply knocks him out.

Trivia

 * The game Mobile Suit Gundam: Gihren no Yabou depicts him early on in the One Year War as a supporter of General Revil. He speaks with representatives of the Federation in an attempt to convince them of the importance of Mobile Suits.
 * The piece of junk he built actually appears in the Playstation game Super Robot Wars Alpha. In it, it actually drastically reduces the performance of a machine equipped with it while dropping its repair cost to 10.