Posted on 02/02/2003 3:13:48 PM PST by Theodore R.
Husband still had love for Tech By JOHN FUQUAY AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
While the space shuttle Columbia floated quietly in dark space, crew members had the peaceful songs of the Texas Tech University Choir to accompany them.
The music was taken into orbit by former Tech choir member Rick Husband, who had a strong affection for song.
Husband, the flight commander who was among those lost aboard the Columbia on Saturday, was a native of Amarillo and was choir president at Amarillo High School. His NASA biography lists singing ahead of all his other hobbies and interests.
John Dickson, Tech's director of choral studies, was among the few people outside of family members and space program officials who communicated with Husband during the mission.
"He called me last spring and said, 'This is the commander of the shuttle Columbia.' I said, 'No, you've got the wrong number, this is the School of Music,' " Dickson said.
After the initial surprise, Dickson learned more about the call.
"He said one of his greatest experiences at Tech, aside from mechanical engineering, was singing in the Tech choir.
"He said, 'As commander, we are allowed to take with us a few items of personal interest. Would you allow me to take a CD of the Texas Tech choir with me so I could listen to it in space?' "
Dickson said he began frequent contacts with Husband, including one from the shuttle four days ago:
"We're having a great time up here. I got to listen to the Tech Choir CD today while I exercised. It was great!" Husband wrote.
One of the songs Husband could play was a choral composition titled, "Leonardo dreams of his flying machine," which Dickson said dramatizes Leonardo da Vinci's struggles to invent aircraft.
Dickson said Husband had a photo taken of him and the CD floating in the Columbia cabin that he intended to present to the Tech choir during a visit later this year.
He had returned to Tech several times to talk to mechanical engineering students and was inducted as a distinguished engineer in the College of Engineering.
On an earlier shuttle mission, Husband took a T-shirt from the engineering department and a brass medallion with the state of Texas engraved on it. He presented them to Tech along with a picture of himself in space giving the school's 'guns up' hand sign.
"I'm sad. You hate to see one of your students doing what he wanted to do dying, apparently. It's tough," said James Lawrence, who taught Husband at Tech in the late 1970s.
Other Tech professors who knew Husband shared similar feelings.
"His status didn't go to his head," said Thomas Burton, a professor and chairman of the university's mechanical engineering department. "He was a really, really wonderful guy."
"I think anybody in this situation when they watch something disintegrate is pretty upset," said retired Tech professor Duane Jordan, who taught Husband and had been invited to Husband's launch on Jan. 16. "It's a sad day."
Susan Maxwell of Lubbock went to high school with Husband, sang choir with him and remained close. Maxwell was among Husband's guests for the Columbia liftoff at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Maxwell previously told The Avalanche-Journal about her memories of Husband.
"His mom says that when he was 4 he started talking about wanting to be an astronaut. When I got to know him pretty well as a good friend in high school, that's what his goal was, to be an astronaut," she said.
Husband got his pilot's license when he was 17. He was later a distinguished graduate of the Air Force ROTC and was named U.S. Air Force F-4 Tactical Air Command Instructor Pilot of the Year in 1987. He had received several Air Force commendations and medals.
As an Air Force colonel, he had logged more than 3,800 flight hours in more than 40 different types of aircraft.
He was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1994 and completed astronaut training in 1996. Husband's only other previous shuttle experience was as the pilot for a 10-day mission in 1999 aboard the Discovery.
Husband was 45, married and had two children.
jfuquay@lubbockonline.com 766-8722
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