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July 20, 1969: Man Lands On The Moon!
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39 years ago, man set foot on the moon, fulfilling President John F.
Kennedy's goal for America as well as the dreams of people of all
ages worldwide. The Apollo moon landing captured the attention of
the people in all countries and continues to inspire engineering and
theatrical creativity as well as debate to this very day.
William R. Benner, Sr. (father of Pangolin's President William R. Benner, Jr.) worked at NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston Texas from 1967 through 1969. He was one of the people who worked on the Mission Control computers, and contributed directly to the success of the Apollo 10 and Apollo 11 missions to the moon, as well as indirectly to other Apollo missions. He left NASA in November 1969, a few days before the launch of Apollo 12. Before joining NASA, he worked for ten years, for one of the first, and most famous computer companies: UNIVAC. And after leaving NASA, he worked at Technitrol -- an electronics company that continues to thrive today. William R. Benner, Sr. passed away March 30, 2001. He lived a life of creativity -- artistically, musically, and technically. During his lifetime he wrote numerous songs as well as poetry. He played Piano and Organ proficiently. And designed many diverse things from paper doll-houses to electronic color organs (also known as light organs). Below are a few photographs from his personal collection (I scanned them in and then put titles on a few of them) as well as other memorabilia. NASA- related
UNIVAC-relatedAs mentioned above, my dad worked at UNIVAC, which is one of the first and most famous US mainframe computer companies. I remember visiting UNIVAC with my father, who told me not to touch anything while I was there. Being the good son... sure enough I touched a sharp piece of glass and cut my finger. I had to go to the first aid clinic within the company and get a band-aid. Those were the days...
Color organ-relatedAs mentioned above, my dad made color organs. But not just any color organs -- really special ones, with specialized glass, and multiple internal reflections. I remember some of them having egg-crates and other wild internal structures. The visual results were amazing. He would visit every glass store in Pennsylvania and try all of them to see the results. I wish I had some color pictures to show the actual visual result, but it was really breathtaking...
Early literary worksBelow are some scans of some of the works he did, in his own handwriting. These are but a few of the ones I happen to have in the Pangolin office. My dad also wrote songs. One such song he wrote was called "Heaven in Havana". He wrote it just before Cuba was taken over by Castro. So much for commercialization prospects...
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This page last updated: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 03:42 PM
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