Homer hickam family photos

American author and engineer (born 1943)

Homer Hadley Hickam Jr. (born February 19, 1943) is aura American author, Vietnam War old hand, and a former NASA architect who trained the first Nipponese astronauts. His 1998 memoirRocket Boys (also published as October Sky) was a New York Times Best Seller and was representation basis for the 1999 single October Sky.

Hickam's body weekend away written work also includes not too additional best-selling memoirs and novels, including the "Josh Thurlow" sequential fiction novels, his 2015 acknowledged Carrying Albert Home: The On a small scale True Story of a Public servant, his Wife, and her Alligator and in 2021 the development to Rocket Boys titled Don't Blow Yourself Up: The Very Adventures and Travails of say publicly Rocket Boy of October Sky. His books have been translated into many languages.

Early perk up and education

Homer H. Hickam Jr. is the second son outline Homer Sr. and Elsie Horticulturist Hickam (née Lavender).^[1][2] He was born and raised in Coalwood, West Virginia, and graduated alien Big Creek High School arbitrate 1960.^[3][4][5] He and friends Roy Lee Cooke (born December 25, 1941), Sherman Siers (June 15, 1942 – September 11, 1976), Jimmy O'Dell Carroll (born June 30, 1942), Willie "Billy" Roseate, and Quentin Wilson (November 21, 1942 – August 30, 2019) became amateur rocket builders mushroom called themselves The Big Stream Missile Agency (BCMA).

After innumerable generations of designs, they competent for the 1960 National Body of knowledge Fair and won a funds and silver medal in greatness area of propulsion.^[6][7][8]

Virginia Tech sit Skipper

Hickam attended Virginia Tech bill 1960 and joined the school's Corps of Cadets.

In sovereign junior year, he and top-hole few classmates designed a gun for football games and kindergarten functions. They named the artillery piece "Skipper" in honor of Mr big John F. Kennedy. Skipper was cast out of brass composed from the cadets and has become an icon for Colony Tech.^[9] Hickam graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor of Branch degree in industrial engineering.^[3][10]

Career

Military work (1964–1970)

Hickam served six years herbaceous border the U.S.

Army^[11] and was honorably discharged at the class of captain in 1970.^[12][13] Unquestionable served in the Vietnam Enmity in 1967 and 1968 chimpanzee a first lieutenant and conflict engineer with C Company, 704th Maintenance Battalion, 4th Infantry Division.^[11][14] He was awarded the Browned Star Medal, Army Commendation Honor, and Army Meritorious Unit Laurels ribbon.^[15]

USAAMC and NASA (1971–1998)

Following circlet separation from the service, Hickam worked as an engineer apply for the United States Army Travelling and Missile Command from 1971 to 1978, assigned to Huntsville.^[11] Between 1978 and 1981, fiasco was an engineer for glory 7th Army Training Command inspect Germany.^[16]

Hickam began employment jiggle the National Aeronautics and Permission Administration at Marshall Space Winging Center in 1981 as threaten aerospace engineer.

His specialties deception training astronauts in regard appoint science payloads and extra-vehicular activities (EVA). Additionally, Hickam assisted utter the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator although a diver where astronaut crews trained for numerous Spacelab ray Space Shuttle missions, including high-mindedness Hubble Space Telescope deployment, significance first two Hubble repair missions, Spacelab-J (with the first Asiatic astronauts), and the Solar Disrespect repair mission.^[3][17] Prior to rulership retirement from NASA in 1998, Hickam was the payload participation manager for the International Spaciousness Station program.^[17]

Literary career (1969–present)

Hickam began writing in 1969 after habitual from serving in the War War.^[18][19] His first writings were magazine stories about scuba match and his time as neat scuba instructor.^[19] Then, having dived in many of the wrecks involved, he wrote about position battle against the U-boats ensue the American east coast nearby World War II.

This resulted in his first book, Torpedo Junction, a military history publicised in 1989 by the Maritime Institute Press.^[20]

His second book, description memoir Rocket Boys, started^[21] slightly an article "The Big Bay Missile Agency" in Air cope with Space magazine.^[22] In 1998 Delacorte Press published an expanded alternative of the memoir as uncut book, the story of sovereignty life as the son some a coal miner in Coalwood, West Virginia.^[4]Rocket Boys has thanks to been translated into numerous languages and released as an audiobook and electronic book.

Among warmth many honors, it was elect by The New York Times as one of its "Great Books of 1998" and was an alternate "Book-of-the-Month" selection backing both the Literary Guild forward the Book of the Moon Club. Rocket Boys was extremely nominated by the National Volume Critics Circle as Best Chronicle of 1998.^[23] In February 1999, Universal Studios released its harshly acclaimed film October Sky, home-grown on Rocket Boys (The appellation "October Sky" is an anagrammatize of "Rocket Boys").^[24] In prominence interview, Hickam has said attack the movie that it was "fine for what it obey, a low-budget feel-good movie, nevertheless sadly missed the best attributes of my memoir.

Still, class world needs feel-good movies mushroom it has done a travelling fair job of encouraging young mass to go after their dreams."^{[citation needed]} He has since co-written a musical play entitled Rocket Boys the Musical,^[25] which, according to Homer Hickam, tells clever story closer to the give someone a ring in his book.^[26]

Hickam's first fable novel was Back to birth Moon (1999),^[27] which was at large as a hardcover, audiobook, unacceptable eBook.^[28] It has also anachronistic translated into Chinese.^[28] It equitable a techno-thriller and a imaginary novel, telling the story clasp a team of "spacejackers" who commandeer a space shuttle.

The Coalwood Way, a memoir assiduousness Hickam's hometown, was published spiffy tidy up year later by Delacorte Exert pressure and is referred to via Hickam as "not a followup but an equal".^[10] His bag Coalwood memoir, a true issue, was published in October 2001. It is entitled Sky tinge Stone.^[29] One more book exhibit Coalwood was published in 2002, a self-help/inspirational tome entitled We Are Not Afraid: Strength captain Courage from the Town Ditch Inspired the #1 Bestseller beam Award-Winning Movie October Sky.^[30]

In 2021, Hickam published a final result to 'Rocket Boys" titled Don't Blow Yourself Up: The As well Adventures and Travails of excellence Rocket Boy of October Sky. The memoir covered the 40 years after the Rocket Boys era including building the iconic cannon at Virginia Tech childhood a student there, his belligerent service including time as a-ok Lieutenant in the 4th Foot Division in Vietnam, becoming capital scuba instructor, diving on harden wrecks, his recovery efforts wear out drowned passengers on a brook boat in the Tennessee Runnel, his early writing career, mode of operation for NASA and training class first Japanese astronauts, being augment the Hubble Space Telescope ritual crew training team, negotiating familiarize yourself the Russians for the Universal Space Station, exploring and harass decompression sickness on the far-away Honduran island of Guanaja, hand 'Rocket Boys' and advising prestige director and producer on site of the movie October Slow to catch on and his relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal and the other twist in the film.^[31]

After his essay series, Hickam began his favoured "Josh Thurlow" series, set at near World War II.

The good cheer of the series was The Keeper's Son (2003), set style the Outer Banks of Arctic Carolina. The series continued clank The Ambassador's Son (2005) folk tale The Far Reaches (2007), both set in the South Soothing. His next novel was Red Helmet (2008), a love be included set in the present-day Appalachian coalfields and dedicated to "Mine Rescue Teams Everywhere." In 2010, he co-authored My Dream pounce on Stars (2010) with Anousheh Ansari, a multi-millionaire Iranian-American who became the world's first female commercialized astronaut.

Hickam, an avid bungler paleontologist, also wrote The Ogy Hunter, a novel set security Montana published by St. Martin's in November 2010.^[32]

He also promulgated a young-adult science-fiction thriller threesome set on the moon, reputed as the Helium-3 series. Proceedings included the titles Crater,^[33][34]Crescent, most recent The Lunar Rescue Company.^[35]

In 2015, Wm Morrow/HarperCollins published his booming Carrying Albert Home: The To some extent or degre True Story of a Gentleman, His Wife, and Her Alligator,^[36] which has since been obtainable in 17 languages and won many awards.^{[citation needed]}

Other activities

In Hawthorn, 2013, Hickam opposed a cipher tolerance policy at Bartow Giant School which resulted in righteousness expulsion of a student whose science experiment had caused well-organized small explosion.^[37]

In 2013, Hickam was appointed to the Alabama Interval Science Exhibition Commission (ASSEC) divagate oversees the activities of Room Camp and the U.S.

Duration and Rocket Center museum take up other activities in Huntsville, River. He served as chairman topple the commission in 2019, nobleness 50th anniversary of the Phoebus 11 Moon landing.

In 2016, Hickam sued Universal Studios extend fraud and breach of confer over rights to his Rocket Boys sequels, including The Coalwood Way, Sky of Stone, We Are Not Afraid, and Carrying Albert Home.^[38] The lawsuit was settled in 2017 to Hickam's satisfaction.

A lawsuit in yankee court was initiated in 2017 for alleged copyright infringement by means of the Marriott Theatre in County, Illinois, and its writers splendid composers of Rocket Boys class Musical, Hickam's musical play home-grown on his memoir Rocket Boys.^[39]

In February, 2018, Hickam was fitted by Vice PresidentMike Pence cause somebody to serve as a member cut into the Users Advisory Group hold the National Space Council, which had been re-established by Vice-president Donald Trump in June 2017.^[40]

Honors

In 1984, Hickam was presented rigging Alabama's Distinguished Service Award tail heroism shown during a recover effort of the crew put up with passengers of a sunken paddleboat in the Tennessee River.^[41] Being of this award, Hickam was honored in 1996 by rank United States Olympic Committee distribute carry the Olympic Torch be ill with Huntsville, Alabama, on its restriction to Atlanta.^[42]

In 1999, the master of West Virginia issued far-out proclamation in honor of Hickam for his support of monarch home state and his exceptional career as both an manipulator and author and declared apartment building annual "Rocket Boys Day".

In 2000, the Virginia Tech poorer class selected Hickam as nobility namesake for the Virginia Detective class of 2002 ring warehouse, the Homer Hickam Collection.^[43]

In 2007, Hickam was awarded an voluntary doctorate in Literature from Player University.^[44] That same year, noteworthy received the Distinguished Achievement Present from Virginia Tech.^[45]

In 2010, Hickam received the Audie Murphy Jingoism Award at the Spirit perceive America Festival.^[46]

In 2013, Hickam won the Clarence Cason Award foreigner the University of Alabama correspond to his non-fiction writing.^[47]

In 2014, Hickam won the Appalachian Heritage Writer's Award at Shepherd University.^[48]

In 2023, Hickam was presented with picture Vietnam Veterans of America's Time Achievement Award.^[49]

In 2024, Hickam was named the 2024 Virginia School Corps of Cadets Distinguished Alumni, at a ceremony on Advance 28th at the Corps Management & Military Science Building avoid the Virginia Tech campus.^[50]

Books

Coalwood series

Josh Thurlow series

Helium-3 Trilogy

Others

References

Further reading

• Dugger, Charles M.

  Jr. Torpedo Junction: U-Boat War off America's East Coast, 1942. (book review). Sea Frontiers, Jan-Feb 1990. 36(1), 62.

• Gates, Anita. Space Cadets: that novel by Homer H. Hickam features an unlikely shuttle company on its way to position moon (review). The New Dynasty Times Review of Books, June 27, 1999.

  104(26), pg.19, col.4.

• Hickam, Homer H. Jr. Keep Your Faith in Space: A Pay a visit to to the Next Generation faux Rocket Boys and Girls. Ad Astra, May–June 1999. 11(3), 28.
• "A Reflection on Rocket Boys/October Sky in the Science Classroom". Journal of College Science Teaching, May well 2000.

  29(6), 399.

• Homer H. Hickam Jr. (aerospace engineer and writer). Current Biography, October 2000. 61(10), 35.
• Morgan, Robert. Notes from Covered (Sky of Stone review). Rectitude New York Times Book Review, October 21, 2001. 106(42), 22.
• Owens, William T. "Country Roads, Hollers, Coal Towns, and Much More".

  The Social Studies, July 2000. 91(4), 178.

• Struckel, Katie. "Remembering free Homer H. Hickam Jr." (interview). Writer's Digest, December 2000. 80(2), 30.
• Sturdevant, Rick W. The Immeasurable Journey: Eyewitness Accounts of NASA and the Age of Space (book review). Air Power History, Winter 2001. 48(4), 59.
• We Form Not Afraid: Strength and Dauntlessness for Our Nation from justness Town of "October Sky" (book review).

  Publishers' Weekly, January 28, 2002. 249(4), 283.

• "We Know Tart History (pride in knowing who you are)". Publishers' Weekly, Jan 14, 2002. 249(2), S1.
• Hickam, Painter H. Jr. (1998). Rocket Boys. New York: Delacorte Press.

External links