Foil: 7 Panel: 4 Column: 1 Line: 6

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:

In 1945, while in 4th grade, I learned that the moon was a heavenly body circling the earth. I ran home for lunch and excitedly informed my mother that someday I would fly to the moon. The closest I got to that goal was to contribute to the development of software for three major U.S. space projects: SURVEYOR, APOLLO, and SKYLAB.
I worked on various aspects of telemetry processing on all these missions starting in 1964 and ending in 1976. Being interested in history, the most fascinating and satisfying work in my whole career were my contributions to the APOLLO Project. Just before APOLLO 11, I wrote a letter to the astronauts guaranteeing flawless telemetry processing. I received a "thank-you" letter back with all three signatures.
On walks at night, while looking at the full moon, I often muse that the descending component of the Lunar Excursion Module for missions 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 are still sitting there waiting for future space travelers to visit. It seems almost impossible that my American generation finally accomplished what tens of thousands of former generations of humanity could only dream about.