Bill Hanna Remembered

At last night’s Mayor and Council Meeting, a moment of silence was observed for former Mayor Bill Hanna (89) who died on Saturday, January 15, 2011.

William E. Hanna, Jr. served as Rockville mayor from 1974 until 1982 when he was elected to the Montgomery County Council. He then served on the County Council until losing his seat in 1998. He played a role in creating the I-270 corridor and the County’s Moderately Priced Dwelling Unit (MPDU) program.

Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio emphasized “He was a treasured mayor to the City.” She explained he was responsible for the City’s logo and flag. He even decided we needed a City bird so he promoted the “rock hawk”. “He was quite a fellow.”

Councilmember Piotr Gajewski added “Bill Hanna was great supporter of the arts and I worked with him when he moved onto the County Council. He was a pioneer in a fashion and just a number one supporter of the arts in the community for many years.”

Council President, Valerie Erving, provides a description of Mr. Hanna’s work in the Council’s Press Release:

Bill Hanna was a great public servant. As a member of the Montgomery County Council from 1982 to 1998, he was a leader in fields ranging from economic development to the arts. The County’s top ranking in biotech, in particular, owes much to his vision. He was a leader as well as Mayor of Rockville from 1974 to 1982 and as a senior federal official at the Social Security Administration and NASA. His military career, starting with his service in World War II, was equally distinguished. We join Mr. Hanna’s family and friends in mourning his loss and remembering his extraordinary contributions to our nation and our community.

The press release goes on to detail more of Mr. Hanna’s accomplishments:

Mr. Hanna was president of the County Council three times during his 16-year tenure. During his four terms as Mayor of Rockville, the city twice earned “All-America City” awards.

As a County Councilmember, he was a leader in providing affordable housing and established a catastrophic health insurance plan for employees—the first such plan for public employees in the nation. He sponsored the development district concept for underwriting of needed infrastructure in emerging communities that required developers, not homeowners, to pay for the needed infrastructure. He strongly supported the Art in Public Places program and the Commission on the Humanities.

Mr. Hanna served as vice president National Institute of Public Management and as president of the Maryland Municipal League in 1974-75. He was a member of the board of directors of the Washington Council of Governments.

In a candidate questionnaire that he provided to The Washington Post while running for re-election in 1996, Mr. Hanna wrote, “I do believe that lower- and moderate-income housing shortage is a fundamental ill affecting our county. This shortage is reflected in our declining labor availability, congested roads and high cost of market housing.”

Mr. Hanna is survived by his wife of 62 years, Annette; seven daughters; 15 grandchildren and two great-granddaughters.

Family will receive friends at St. Mary’s Catholic Church on Thursday from 3 to 5 PM and 7 to 9 PM and where Mass of Christian Burial will be offered Friday, January 21, at 10:30 AM.

Interment will be at Arlington National Cemetery with Full Military Honors at a later date since Mr. Hanna served in the Army during World War II and also served in the Air Force Reserve and Air Force Auxiliary.

Granville Paules Lived His Dream

Granville and Diane Paules

Granville Paules, a long time and very active member of our Rockville community died at Shady Grove Hospital on January 4, 2011 after fighting bladder cancer for two years. His involvement in the life of our community and his accomplishments with our nation’s space program will be long and fondly remembered by all.

His demeanor was always calm and patient. Everyone knew him to be soft-spoken, caring, and positive in all that he did and the list of his endeavors is quite extensive.

In Rockville he served on the Planning Commission and the Board of the Sister City Corporation. He was Scoutmaster of Troop 1450 at College Gardens for a few years until his son, Skip, earned his Eagle Scout award. At the same time he earned a MBA from the University of Maryland in Baltimore.

Granville also served as Senior Warden of the Vestry of Christ Episcopal Church, where he was active with outreach efforts. Christ Church’s minister, John McDuffy, described Granville as “a kindly, generous man, who was greatly compassionate.” The community recognized this and he received the Good Neighbor Award from the City of Rockville for joining together with others to help a neighbor. These same neighbors have been wonderful during his illness, demonstrating the true sense of being good neighbors to each other.

Many in Rockville might not know of his extensive career with the space program. After graduating from the University of Texas, Granville Paules became a missile officer in the Navy while dreaming about the stars. This technical background prepared him for work in the space business. During the NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, Granville was interviewed extensively and demonstrated his excitement about the space program:

I was a naval officer on the ship down in Australia when [John H.] Glenn [Jr.] flew over in the first Mercury capsules, and we were over by Perth, Australia, where the tracking station was, and we saw some of the NASA support people and astronauts that went out to that tracking station. That just kind of got me more hyped.

In 1964, he wrote a job description and handed it to a friend who worked at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. At that time the Johnson Space Center hadn’t even opened and offices were spread all over town. When they received his description they called and made an offer for a job. The write-up turned out to be really close to what officially became a Guidance Officer’s position dealing with analysis, real-time analysis, command and control. Imagine writing down your dream and receiving the opportunity to make it a reality. He resigned from the Navy but continued his Naval Service through the Reserves and retired as a Captain.

Granville was a NASA Flight Controller at the Johnson Space Center Mission Control Center and was the Primary Guidance Officer during all of the unmanned Apollo missions and all but a couple of the manned missions. He was in “The Trench” for the moon-landing of Apollo 11. During the Apollo 13 crisis he served as a member of the flight operations team and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for bringing the astronauts home safely.

As for landing on the moon, during the Oral History Project, Granville was as amazed as anyone about the timing:

I made it my whole lifetime to be dedicated to getting to the Moon by the year 2000. That was what my goal was. I figured we could probably do it, and reading all of the Willy Ley and all of the science fiction guys, they figured you could make it by 2000. Here we were back in the early 60s. ―Yeah, we’ve got 40 years. We’ll make it.‖ Made it by [19]’69. [Laughs] But it was a really compressed schedule.

Although the story is long, here is Granville’s full account of situation in The Trenches during the moon landing:

Well, the landing on the Moon, now, we’d gone through [Apollo] 8, and that was really exciting, so you were kind of past the really hype of the first time around the moon. [Apollo] 10, everybody was pretty confident that the LM was going to work well, so you weren’t as nervous about things not working well. But there’s nothing like that first time when [Neil A.] Armstrong goes down to land, you know.

I had launched it. I was the lead Launch Guidance Officer, and I was really paying a lot of attention all through the phase till it got to the Moon, making sure when they did comparisons between the spacecraft guidance system and the LM guidance system that they were still working well; we didn’t have any problems with the LM, and it was going to work well when they took off. Then when you separate in orbit, after you get to the Moon and they separate and you start doing maneuvers with the LM, you’ve got a lot of chances to look at it and make sure the systems are going to work right.

Well, I was on with Stephen Bales for the actual landing cycle. I was what was called Yaw then, and again I worried about the commanding to the LM, the loads, the landing site information, all that sort of stuff. As they started landing, the alarm—you’ve probably heard about all the alarms going off and so on. Kranz has probably talked a lot about this. It’s been documented in many books, the sequence of details.

But what happened is we had run into this in simulation where the computer software actually behaved the same way in a simulation similar, not exactly, but similar. What happened is the computer is trying to do too much, and it gets overloaded in this internal minor loop, and it got locked up, and it sends off this alarm, which says, ―I’m too busy. I’m going to do this.‖ So what they had to do when that happened—it actually happened on Apollo 11 as you were coming down that a similar alarm went off.

So what we had checked out with the simulation, and we’d done a lot of work after that sim kind of blew up on us in the second week of June, we had MIT run a whole lot of other checks to see if we had to fix the software on the spacecraft or do something differently. Well, by that time it was too late to really make any changes that anybody was going to be confident you’d get in and get right without screwing something else up. So we flew with it that way.

What happened is the alarm went off as they were coming down; they had the same thing. The radar was trying to do this, and the com [communication] system was trying to do something else, and so all they had to do was flip a switch that turned off the search for a particular function, and that relaxed the computer, constrained the computer settled down and was doing the right thing. So everything was going real well as they came in

Now, the really exciting difference was, of course, the actual landing, but what I always remember when I’m sitting there—and now by this time I’ve been through a lot of missions and was feeling pretty confident that you can get through anything. But Armstrong comes down to land, and you’re sitting there and you’re listening to it, and the guy behind us is counting out the number of seconds of fuel left before abort.

Now, there’s something as they’re coming down where their velocity coming down toward the Moon is so high—it is at a certain level or higher—that if they were to abort at any point in that stretch, if they had to abort at any point in that stretch while they’re going this fast, then that fuel left in the spacecraft to take them back up—they abort and drop the bottom part and fly back up with the LM module—they don’t have enough fuel to actually make it back into orbit, and so it’s called a little stretch of the ―dead man’s curve.‖ You really don’t want to get down into that stretch. So you really want to slow down. It’s just kind of a curve. You try to keep them above that curve, so their approach velocity slows them down, and then they sort of hover. They’re not really supposed to hover much. They’re supposed to go down and slow down and stop.

Well, Armstrong goes down, and he sits there, and then you hear him just hovering. He’s wandering around the spacecraft just above the surface of the Moon, and afterwards it turned out there were boulder fields and all kinds of things. He wasn’t sure he wanted to put the wheels down on that and have it tip over on him or something. So he just hovered around; it’s like he’s humming away. You didn’t hear him humming, but you could just sort of sense that must have been what was going through his mind after it was all over.

The guy behind us is counting the fuel down, and it was down to the point now you’re past all this threat of dead man’s curves and everything else, but he hadn’t landed, and we were down to like eight seconds of fuel left—eight seconds. Well, it turned out when they finished measuring it, it was like more than that. It was thirteen or fourteen seconds, which seems like an eternity when you’re doing some of this stuff. But it didn’t seem like much to all of us in the Control Center while we were listening. So the only voice you heard was the guy behind us counting the thing down.

In that Control Center there’s usually a background hum of voices talking, people talking, you’re talking to the guy behind you. Not on the loops, but it’s just kind of quiet talk between people, flight controllers, while you’re doing things. Or somebody talking on this loop to a guy, not the Flight Director loop, but to one of your support guys in the back room. So there’s always the hum of voices; not loud, but there’s something going on.

Not during this phase. When he was landing, it got so quiet in there that it was just like they had turned off all the electricity and all the people, and everybody was holding their breath, literally. Everybody held their breath; I did. And Charley Parker was sitting behind us at that point. He was our Branch Chief, and he was sitting behind us, and we were all sitting there in that last probably 20 or 30 seconds. I’ll bet you nobody breathed, and this guy, the only thing you heard was this monotonous, ―22, 21, 20…‖

Finally when he said, ―Touchdown,‖ you could hear everybody breathe. [Laughs] It was really funny, like a big inhale. [Demonstrates] It was a real experience. So that was really important to all of us. Then you go through the quick countdown to make sure that the LM’s working right. You don’t want to abort right then if you don’t have to. They got settled in, and everything went fine after that. That was a pretty straightforward mission. That was a good mission. Enjoyed it. And, what do you for an encore after you do that?

If you have ever wondered about whether the movie, Apollo 13 was accurate, here’s part of Granville’s thoughts about it and Apollo 13:

I did the Apollo 13 launch, got it on its way, and then was off the console. I figured I was done. Then, they had NASA Select, which was always either a radio channel or a TV channel you could watch or listen to, and I always had it on when I was home. Well, I was home when I heard that something had happened. Then I listened to it for probably 20 minutes, maybe, as soon as something had happened.

They usually had the public affairs guy talking about what’s going on, and I was listening to what—they actually played the crew loop. You could hear part of it. Then I would hear the interpretation of, ―Well, the crew was asking are we going to be able to go to the Moon, and ―Well, we’ll get back to you.

It was clear from what I was hearing there was no way. These guys, it was serious, and quit worrying about going to the Moon, guys. You’d better start worrying about getting back, seriously. You could tell if you’d been in the business at all, that there was a really serious problem. So I called the console over there. They have an outside line, and you can call. I called over, and Charley Parker answers the phone. He said, ―Why don’t you just come on over.

So I came over, and then by that time they had pulled Kranz’s shift off, and they were all locked up, starting to debug what they thought happened and figure out—he just created that standalone team that stayed with that, that sort of offline team, throughout the whole mission, for the rest of the mission timeline. Bales was on that group; John [W.] Aaron; the usual—Kranz’s first-line team was already pulled off to do that.

So they took all the flight controllers and put them into the three other operating teams. So you were mixed with people you’d probably never worked on a particular mission with, necessarily, although generally the procedures and all that sort of thing were identical. You knew what to do, and you knew what they were talking about when they talked about this, that, or the other. So it didn’t matter. It was just a matter of you’d end up with—I think I ended up with [Milton L.] Windler’s team as the Flight Director. We ended up with different phases, each of us working—you’re always worried about making sure they stayed on a safe return trajectory. On the trench; that was our worry.

Other people worried about systems problems, things that would run out of resources. You probably read the book or saw all the specifics of how people came up with very creative ways to extend life support systems and that sort of thing. Well, just the way I remember it, I guess maybe I put it in here.

People ask me a lot after the Apollo 13 movie came out, ―Well, how close was that to what really happened?

To me, the movie was really well done, in terms of being factual about things, but I said the only reaction I could have if you asked me that is, ―It did a really great job of recreating what really happened on the mission, but in the case of when you’re sitting there, we just didn’t know how it was going to turn out.‖ Nobody wanted it to go badly, but you just didn’t know. You thought, each time you got something fixed, ―Ah!

But then something else happened. It was just amazing how many strings of things caused a problem.
But one that didn’t show up much in the movie, that I thought was really important, was the fresh water situation. Remember, a couple of the crew got sick. Well, one of the problems was they had bladder infections, and the doctors were really after them to drink water. Well, it turns out water is also the coolant for the electronics, and when they turned all the electronics off to the bare minimum, where you had one radio that was turned on, but all the rest of it was turned off, so the spacecraft starts cooling down, and it gets colder and colder and colder.

Because the electronics are usually on, and there’s’ enough electronics going on that it keeps the spacecraft warm. So that was part of it; it was kind of a closed cycle. What happened, they were getting cold, and they couldn’t talk. Now that was pretty well done in the movie, I think, but actually, they had to bite their tongue because they couldn’t talk. Their teeth would chatter. I could hear [James A.] Lovell. You could just tell he’d just bite his tongue so he could talk without having his teeth chatter. They were down in the low 50 and high 40. They were all really cold. But they refused to drink water. The doctors started saying, ―Look, guys.

They were preserving the water, because they knew as soon as they turned the electronics on, they only had so much water. The fuel cells created water, and when the fuel cells were gone, you lost all your water supply on the spacecraft side. On the LM side, it was only designed to handle two people for a shorter period of time. Well, they stretched it out into days of living there. So they knew, Lovell and the crew, knew that as soon as they started turning things on to warm up, they were going to boil off the water, and then they wouldn’t have any more water to cool the electronics so then they really needed them. That water normally would have been their water supply to drink and mix food.

Well, they weren’t drinking it; they were preserving it. What happened is—that’s why I think the movie didn’t really pick that up very well—is the doctors got on it. Dr. [Charles A. ―Chuck‖] Berry, he actually got on the loop and was chewing out Lovell that they had to drink more, because as soon as you get dehydrated, you start getting delirious, and then you can’t do anything. You’re really in trouble. So he really had to lean on Lovell to get him to drink water.

They finally agreed to drink more water, and that turned out to be a good thing, but everybody was—they were looking at the water profile. How much water is left, and are they going to have enough to do what they had to do? So that never showed up as much of a big deal, but it was a really big deal. Everybody in the Control Center knew that if that water level kept going down, they were going to be in trouble with the electronics or they were going to be in trouble with delirium or whatever. So water was a real problem, and it didn’t show up that much in the movie, I don’t think. But everything else was pretty well done.

After leaving NASA, Granville worked for the Department of Transportation in 1971 where is advanced the state of transportation systems planning using emerging desk top computer capabilities. Then in 1985 he returned to NASA, The Washington Post obituary details his extensive work on several projects which earned him the NASA Exceptional Service Medal. Altogether he served as a senior level manager for the federal government for over 40 years.

When he retired from NASA in 2006, he took a position with the Kelly, Anderson and Associates as a Principal for Aerospace Services, served as a board member of the Open Geospatial Consortium, and Director of the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Geospatial Remote Sending Service.

When my Cub Scout Pack 928 held its first Space Derby a few years ago, Granville came to speak to the boys about how to design their spacecrafts, hoping to usher in a new generation amazed by outer space and the engineering possibilities . We will all miss him greatly.

His wife Diane and children, Skip and Allison, invite the community to a celebration of his life at Christ Episcopal Church Rockville this Saturday, January 15, 2011 at 3 PM. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his honor to Christ Episcopal Church’s outreach and social ministries.

Sadness And Celebration of the Life of Robert Yin

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Photo from the Grinnell College website

Former Wootton High School Student, Robert Yin died yesterday from injuries sustained during a pole vault accident at the Midwest Conference Meet at Illinois College in Jacksonville, IL. He was a sophomore at Grinnell College majoring in music.

ABC’s KCRG-TV reports that Grinnell’s vice president for student affairs, Houston Dougharty, and college chaplain, Deanna Shorb, were with Yin and his family at the time of his death.

According to the State Journal-Register, Peggy Brooks, assistant cross country coach said he grazed the mat and landed on his back before hitting his head at the meet last Friday.

“When he was vaulting he went up, didn’t go up the pole well and went off to the side,” she said. “Instead of landing on the mat he kind of slid, grazed the mat and landed on his back.”

She said weather and wind were not factors.

“He just went up and went past the bar, and went to the side and missed the mat,” she said. “Our thoughts go out to the coaches, to the team.”

Grinnel College News Online describes his college life:

Robert became an instant friend of DC Posse members, many of whom lived near his home of Rockville, Md., and considered him an honorary Posse member. A music major, he was an active member of the G-Tones. Robert participated on the men’s track and field team, was an employee of the training room, and frequent Frisbee player.

Robert was also a member of my parish, Christ Episcopal Church, where he served as an acolyte and would play violin during services. With remarkable talent, he sung in the local a cappella group, the Supertonics and his school chorus.

He was encouraging to everyone he met and filled with spirit in everything he did. He is remembered for his contagious smile. He was the type of person who would give you the shirt off his back, and did.

Our sympathies to the Yin family. Comprehending such a loss to all those who loved him is difficult.

Loss of Our Friend, Ira Kaye

Many of you may have seen the news reports about a man pinned between the cars in his garage on Thursday, but for our family this is not just a news story because he was a close friend. It is difficult for me to find the words.>

Ira S. Kaye was a good partner, father, son, friend, and colleague who leaves those who loved and cared about him with an unbearable sadness. We all wish we could go back and change those few short moments during the accident so that we would still have him safely with us. Life without him is unimaginable to all of the family and friends who have been arriving on short notice from all over the country in tears and disbelief.

His partner of 23 years, Michael Lacey, had one message, “The lesson is that we have got to all slow down.” We all pressure ourselves to do an excellent job with work and are trying to do our best for family and sometimes we are just rushing too much. Michael reminds us to remember what is important. As this story in The Washington Post describes, for Ira and Michael being together as a family with their son Zachary has always been their priority.

Ira was an avid reader and would spend hours with book sellers looking for books. He loved historical fiction and was excited about politics in general. He was proud of his current ethics work at the Department of Treasury because he felt he could make a difference.

The memorial service is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 10, 2008 in Danzansky/Goldberg Chapel at 1170 Rockville Pike (across from the Woodmont Country Club). Everyone is welcome.

For those wishing to make a contribution to honor Ira, the family has designated the Point Foundation.

Former County Executive Neal Potter Passes Away

On Tuesday, former Montgomery County Executive >Neal Potter died with his family at his side at the age of 93.

Potter served the County for a remarkable 24 years, beginning in 1970 with his election to the County Council at the age of 55. He served as the fourth County Executive from 1990 through 1994, then returned to the County Council for another term, leaving the Council in 1998.

In the County’s press release, Council president Mike Knapp said:

“Neal Potter was a giant in the civic and governmental life of Montgomery County. His integrity and work ethic, and his unwavering commitment to good government, made an indelible mark on the County he served so well. . . . What mattered to him were the merits – not the politics – of even the most controversial issues. It was fitting that in 1998, the Council proclaimed him Councilmember Emeritus, calling him, ‘A man of his times, a man for all times.’”

Memorial contributions may be made to Citizens for Global Solutions, or the Chevy Chase United Methodist Church.

Memorial services are planned at the Chevy Chase United Methodist Church, at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, June 10.

Tribute to Marg Collins

>Tonight the Elwood Smith Community Center was dedicated in memory of Marjorie Collins, who served as president of the Elwood Smith Park Council from 1977 until her death last year in 2007. Although I had not known Marg for as long as many of the others at the dedication, she had an immense impact on me by taking me to my first public meetings and encouraging me to speak up. Her long-time neighborhood friends spoke of this same influence on their lives and how much she is missed.

Back in 1976 the park was not safe because of vandals. The community came together and created the Park Council. Marg was very inclusive as she worked to make sure that everyone in the community was represented. They attended a City Council meeting to explain what the community wanted for the park. At the time, the City was considering tearing down the “Teen Center”. These citizens convinced the City Council that they could make the park a place that could be enjoyed by everyone and the building was saved.

Burt Hall, Director of Recreation and Parks, spoke at the dedication. He told everyone that nothing can solve a community problem better than the actual community coming together and being involved, as in this situation.

He had nothing but the highest praise for Marg. He said she was someone you always wanted to work with. “Marg was always the nicest person, but she was tough. She was not going to put up with the problem not being solved, but always it was in a positive, gentle, kind way.”

Betsy Thompson, Superintendent of Recreation, joined Burt Hall to show the plaque to Marg’s daughter, Kathy Miller, and her granddaughter, Erin, who came up from Virginia for the gathering. The plaque will be added under the picture of the ribbon cutting for the current Elwood Smith Center which was renovated and rededicated in 2001.

For those of you who don’t know, in 1956 Elwood Smith was the first firefighter to die in the line of duty in Rockville. He was with other firefighters trying to save people in the flooding waters of Rock Creek when he died, a hero.

Montgomery County Council Member Marilyn Praisner Passed Away

>The longest-serving woman ever on the Montgomery County Council, Marilyn Praisner passed away this morning due to complications from heart surgery to replace two heart valves.

A County press release said:

Known for her outstanding leadership on local as well as state issues, Mrs. Praisner was named by Washingtonian Magazine as one of the Washington area’s “Most Powerful Women,” and was included in the Daily Record’s “Maryland’s Top 100 Women” three times. The Montgomery County Business and Professional Women’s Club chose her as its 2000 “Woman of the Year.” She received the Charles Willis Award for outstanding school board service from the Maryland Association of Boards of Education. The Montgomery County National Organization for Women awarded her its 2004 Leadership Award.

Councilmember Praisner had taken the lead on a variety of issues, including child care, technology, the environment, private-public partnerships and fiscal policy. She sponsored the County’s Revenue Stabilization Fund, which has garnered high marks from the bond-rating agencies. She co-sponsored the Economic Development Fund that has helped attract quality employers to the County, spearheaded special protection areas (SPA) to protect stream valleys in the County, including the Upper Paint Branch, and established the County’s Technology Innovation Fund to modernize County government technology to better serve residents.

Rockville mayor Susan Hoffmann, a personal friend of Praisner’s, issued the following statement:

On behalf of the Rockville Mayor and Council, I wish to express our sorrow at the sudden death of our good friend Montgomery County Councilmember Marilyn Praisner. Councilmember Praisner was a great public servant who served Montgomery County with devotion, first on the Montgomery County Board of Education, and then 18 years on the County Council. Marilyn was a personal friend. I shall miss her many kindnesses, her wise counsel, and her tenacious commitment to her vision for the County. Our sympathies to her husband, children and grandchildren, as well as her colleagues and many friends.

The family has requested donations be made to the Ida Raitano Scholarship Fund at Douglass College. The Ida Raitano Fund, named for Mrs. Praisner’s mother who died in 2001, was established at Douglass College to provide financial assistance annually to a first-in-family college student or an older student. Contributions may be made to the Ida Raitano Fund/Douglass Annual Fund, Douglass College Alumnae Association, 181 Ryder Lane, New Brunswick, N.J. 08901-8557.

(Photograph from Montgomery County.)

Former Cong. Gilbert Gude Dies

This >just in from WTOP:

Gilbert Gude, a former Maryland Republican congressman and state lawmaker who championed environmental causes that included preserving the Potomac River, died Thursday, according to his former Capitol Hill spokesman. He was 84.

Gude spearheaded making our favorite C&O Canal into a national park. He was raised in Rockville.