I am fortunate to have personally autographed photograph of the earth taken by James Lovell from Apollo eight on 12/24/68. It is hanging in a promenent position on my office wall. He carefully restricts the number of copies of that photograph that are released to keeps it's value high.
Mr. Lovell also served as the command pilot on Apollo Thirteen that was featured in the film starring Tom Hanks. Mr.Lovell made an appearance in that film as an Admiral on the aircraft carrier that that welcomed the space capsule after it landed.
I was fortunate in that I worked at Centel in Chicago while Mr. Lovell was a board member there.
I was lucky enough to work with Pete Conrad for a few years. My first experience with him is something I'll treasure for the rest of my life.
I had never met him, even though we worked for the same company for several years. I had a customer who heard that Pete Conrad worked for the company and asked me if she could meet him, I told her I would try to make arrangements. I walked over to his office, introduced myself and asked him if it was OK if I brought a customer by for a few minutes at lunchtime so she could meet him. He said "Sure, bring her by!". This conversation took about 30 seconds, at most.
So, lunchtime rolls around and I escort my customer up to Conrad's office. What happens next blows me away.
I peek my head into his office and see him sitting behind his desk... he stands up and says, "SoCalRocket, how ya doin'? Come on in! Who ya got with ya?". He greeted me like I was his lifelong buddy. My customer, who was just expecting to shake his hand and say hello, was invited into his office and offered a seat.
For the next HOUR, Pete Conrad told stories about his 3 space flights, including his moon landing - it was utterly fascinating. I don't believe he said the word "I" or "me" once during the entire conversation. It was always "The team" or "the crew"... He showed her every picture he had up on his office wall (it was practically a shrine to the space program) and told her a story about each picture.
Pete Conrad was a small man, maybe 5'6" and 140 lbs... but in my book - he was a giant!
I'm sure you know this, but Jim Lovell made a cameo appearance in the movie "The Right Stuff". For some reason, I always get a little weepy when I see that part.