| Graduation Year | Class of 1965 |
| Date of Passing | Mar 04, 2015 |
| About | Though we had lost touch after Penn State, I remember John very fondly as a friend--and collaborator. I'm so sad to learn of his passing. It was not his time. John and I created a joint project for Mrs. Jackson's physics class our senior year in high school: Every boy's fantasy--a working rocket! We drew up a design and generated the required predictive calculations. We fabricated the body from an aluminum tube and John concocted the molten fuel on his mom's stovetop. As she watched skeptically, the first batch caught fire, filled her kitchen with smoke, and ruined one of her large pans. John charmed her into allowing us to continue. John invited Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Eyler to witness the launch. He set up the five-foot rocket in their side yard, and pressed the ignition. It exploded into the air! Mrs. Jackson shrieked. Up it went, for what we figured was a half mile, and its arc took it about a quarter mile distant. We dashed across the open field to the landing spot, John laughing all the way. It planted itself nose-first into the shoulder of the new Rt. 15 bypass off-ramp, where the molten aluminum tube had collapsed like an accordion. We were ecstatic. Though Mrs. Jackson gave us an "A" for the project, John's mom wasn't a bit happy with the three-foot blast crater in her iris bed. But he found fun in it all, with his infectious "tuh huh-huh" laugh --the stove fire; the successful launch; the accordioned rocket; the crater in the iris bed. John was always up for anything and a joy to be around. |
