G.R.A.A.
Goddard Retirees and Alumni Association
P.O. Box 163, Lanham, MD 20703-0163

IMPORTANT DATES

COMMENTS FROM RON BROWNING, GRAA PRESIDENT: Our speaker at the May luncheon was Kathleen Murphy, President and CEO of the Maryland Bankers Association (MBA). Her topic of discussion was “Status of the Banking Industry in Maryland” and she focused on showing that the 137 banks operating in Maryland are sound and healthy. The data she presented demonstrated a deposit increase in Maryland banks by 16% from 2008 to 2009, while loans increased by 1% (credit unions are not included). The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insures individual deposits to $250,000; consequently, no one has suffered any bank losses. The banks pay the cost for FDIC insurance, not the Federal Government. The Government's Capital Purchase Plan, which has been confusing, was intended to increase the flow of credit into communities through healthy banks. The funds were not requested by banks, required that banks pay 5% for dollars received, and was not a bailout or part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Kathleen closed out her luncheon presentation by noting the MBA's concern for the current Congressional action on the “Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009”, especially considering that 176 amendments have been added to the bill to date.

Members of the GRAA Board of Directors recently met with representatives from Acclaim Press to learn more about how our members could participate in writing a book on the history of Goddard from the perspective of retirees. Stay tuned for more information in future issues of the newsletter.

Hopefully you received, via regular mail, the new 2010 GRAA Membership Directory and May newsletter (with the ballot for the Board of Directors election at the June luncheon). There were a few directories returned, and Dave Moulton is attempting to track down those particular members. If you did not receive your Membership Directory, please contact us and we'll forward you a copy. My thanks are extended to Strat Laios for compiling and getting the Membership Directory printed and to Marge Gustafson and her team for labeling the 2,500+ envelopes.

FROM THE GODDARD ARCHIVES - IT HAPPENED IN JUNE: On June 24, 1999, a Delta-II rocket launched the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite. The satellite was designed to study light in the far ultraviolet portion of the electromagnetic spectrum (which is unobservable with other telescopes. FUSE helped scientists answer important questions about the conditions in the universe immediately following the Big Bang, how chemicals disperse throughout galaxies, and the composition of interstellar gas clouds that form stars and solar systems. FUSE was a joint mission of NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, and the French Space Agency. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory built the telescope and managed the mission. The University of Colorado at Boulder built FUSE's spectrograph and the University of California at Berkeley made the detectors. FUSE became inoperable in July 2007 when it lost its ability to point accurately and steadily at areas of interest and the mission was terminated on October 18, 2007.

RECENT RETIREES Mariann Albjerg, Youn Y. Bae, Stanley R. Schneider, and Richard S. Stolarski.

THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH: The public will believe anything, so long as it is not the truth. Just take a moment to think about the comments and actions of our "leaders" on Capitol Hill.

TREASURER'S REPORT Bob Wigand reports that tax-deductible contributions were received from Art Anderson, John Anikis, Andy and Patricia Barr, Jim Barrowman, Ed Bielecki, Ron Britner, John Callan, Bill Carpenter, Frank Carr, Kent Cockerham, Phil Cressy, Don Crosby, Ed Dalkiewicz, Gary Dennis, Walt Gates, Sterling Gilmore, Bill Halli, Dave Haykin, Ellen Herring, Don Hutchison, Kathryn Iuliano, Elizabeth Jay (in memory of James E. Kupperian), Alton Jones, Bob Lively, Dick Long, Tom Lynch, Ralph Mollerick, Al Opp, Barbara Putney, John Quill, Bill Rice, Ken Rosette, Barbara Shavatt, Joe Schulman, Francis Seiders, Ed Smylie, Frank Snow, E. G. Stassinopoulos, Bob Sullivan, Joe Tinsley, Bill Townsend, Jim Vette, Carl Wagner, Sandra Walter, and Mary Alice Wigand.

REMEMBERING OUR FORMER COLLEAGUES

•  Francis J. (Frank) Boyne, of Hyattsville, MD, passed away at age 93 on April 29th. He was a Mechanical Engineer at Goddard and, among other assignments, was Assistant Spacecraft Systems Manager for the Echo Program.

•  Harry B. Hull, of Frederick, MD, passed away from colon cancer on February 8th. At different times during his Goddard Career he worked in the Utilities and Operations Branch of the Plant Operations and Maintenance Division and the Unit Price Contract Section of the Design and Construction Branch of the Facilities Management Division.

•  Wilmert B. (Mert) Page, of Shoreline, WA, passed away from cancer on March 3rd. During his Goddard career, Mert worked for the Hubble Space Telescope Flight Systems and Servicing Project and later in the Flight Software Branch of the Information Systems Division.

•  Arthur A. Rudmann, of Oxon Hill, MD, passed away due to complications of heart disease on October 27, 2009. He spent close to 30 years at Goddard as a Mechanical Engineer before moving to NASA Headquarters for the last six years of his NASA career.

GRAA MEMBER IS AWARDED NASA'S HIGHEST HONOR: Dr. Jacob (Jack) Trombka, GRAA member and Emeritus Senior Fellow at Goddard, was recently awarded NASAs highest honor, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. He began his career in the early 60's working on the Ranger mission at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Not long afterwards, Dr. Trombka was assigned to NASA Headquarters to direct the physics program for the Gemini, Mercury and Apollo Programs. He was Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-Principal (Co-PI) Investigator on all of the orbital x-ray and gamma ray instruments flown on the Apollo 15, 16 and 17 missions. Two years later, he joined the Theoretical Physics Branch at Goddard and since has been an instrument PI or Co-PI on numerous planetary science missions including: Apollo-Soyuz, the Russian Mars '94 mission, WIND, NEAR, Mars Surveyor, MESSENGER, LRO/LEND, a US/Russian Antarctic Gamma Ray Balloon Flight, and the US/Russian Program for the Development of Remote Sensing X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Sensing Techniques. Congratulations are definitely due Dr. Trombka for his many “out of this world&rdquo accomplishments.

GRAA MEMBER ACHIEVES GREATER ARTISTIC SUCCESS : Maceo Leatherwood, GRAA member and Art Director at Goddard for 26 years, added another “feather in his cap&rdquo when his “Mo Pak” artwork was chosen as one of 75 illustrations to be included in the book “Indivisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas” published by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian. To purchase the book, go to: http://nmai.si.edu/subpage.cfm?subpage=shop&second=books&third=IndiVisible. To check out Maceo's paintings and prints to add to your art collection, go to http://www.maceoleatherwood.com.