Santa Paula writer unearths mother’s role as an unheralded rocket scientist
By Kim Lamb Gregory, Ventura County Star, Calif. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
"He pointed this bony finger right at my nose and he said, 'In 1957, your mother single-handedly saved America's space program,' " Morgan said. "And nobody knows about it but a handful of old men."
The retired aerospace engineer admonished Morgan to tell the story of
"Don't let her die nameless," the aerospace engineer said.
After years of research,
He and his three siblings were aware his mother had worked as a rocket scientist in the 1950s during the Cold War, although she never finished college. They knew their mom had done top-secret work, but she would not discuss it.
"Ninety-nine percent of what I know about my mother, I got from other people," Morgan said.
Part of the reason she never talked was because she was doing top-secret work during the McCarthy era, when anyone could accuse anyone of communist leanings, and their careers would end. But under it all was the one secret she had told no one but their father, Richard, her husband of 53 years.
"I think she thought if she talked about her past in any way, shape or form, this hidden secret would ... roll out," Morgan said. "And she was right."
Now, she was dead at 82 from emphysema and her story was in danger of dying with her. Morgan, who turned 50 the year she died, made a decision. Undertaking this project would blend well with a sense of angst he was feeling after raising a family and working as an insurance agent. He decided to rekindle a love of writing he had as a teenager.
Like his mom, Morgan had never finished college, so he decided to enroll in the creative writing program at CSU Channel Islands and finally get a degree. There, he began to write about his mom.
He began sending emails, making calls and making visits. The puzzle that was his mother began to fall into place.
Born the second youngest of six on
But
She was well on her way to getting a college degree in chemistry at
She loved working, so when the war ended and other women were headed back to the kitchen, she sent her resume to
She went on to develop hydyne, the rocket propellant that helped launch America's first satellite, Explorer I, after the Soviets launched Sputnik I.
Expatriate German scientist
"She hung up on them," Morgan said. "Life magazine -- and she hung up on them."
One night during his seven years of research, he received a mysterious email from a distant relative.
"She said 'Now that your mother's passed away, I think it's time that you know you have a sister,' " Morgan said.
She gave him a phone number of a woman in
When he called the number in
"She said, 'I'm your sister,' " Morgan said.
At age 22, his mother had a child out of wedlock with a young man named Patrick, who disappeared when he learned she was pregnant. A devout Catholic, she gave up the child for adoption but stayed in touch with her through the years, making
Before writing the book, Morgan wrote a play called "Rocket Girl" in 2008, based on his mother's life, which was produced by the drama department at the
In the audience that night was
Stroupe said she didn't encounter much discrimination in the male-dominated field, and she knows it's because of the women in engineering who walked before her, both high-profile and unsung, like
"She was before the whole feminist movement," said Stroupe, 45. "What struck me was she was able to do her job without making a point of being a woman. ... She was allowed to be the exception because she wasn't the rule."
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