Issue: 24 July 1969

The Daily only published on Thursdays during the summer of 1969, so coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing was three days after most other newspapers. The centerpiece story was a listing of the ISU alumni who were involved in the space race.

I bolded the names for easier reading.

ISU Graduates Play Role in Lunar Landing

Many Iowa State students have worked either directly or indirectly with the Apollo Lunar landing and its preparation.

Below are listed some of the ISU graduates who have worked with the space shot. This list is not complete as it primarily contains names of graduates from the ISU aerospace engineering program, but it should provide some idea as to how ISU students are involved in the modern space work.

Jerome Barsky, 1958 physics graduate of ISU is chief of Data Evaluation branch in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Capt. Alfred Drumm, a Chemical engineering graduate of 1964, is a development engineer at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston.

Dallas Ives, an aerospace engineer at the Houston space center, is a physics graduate of ISU.

Harley Weyer, electrical engineering major who received his degree in 1967, is an electrical engineer in Houston.

Urban Polking, chief of Mission Support Requirements in NASA’s manned Space Flight Center in Washington D.C., graduated from ISU in 1948 with a degree in electrical engineering.

Donald F. Seaton, chief of the Apollo program integration in the office of Manned Space Flight in Washington, received his industrial engineering degree from ISU in 1959.

Beverly Audeh, Aero E grad of 1961 with a masters from ISU in 1963, does research in Huntsville for NASA in the field of heat research.

Edgar Harkelroad, 1945 grad, worked on Gemini and Apollo applications program in the flight operations area. He lives in Rockville, Maryland.

Charles Jacobson, presently director of Houston Operations on the [McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company], worked on guidance and control systems in the Gemini Flights and was manager of the Apollo Flight Crew Support Group. He is a 1952 Aero E grad of ISU.

Below is a list of other ISU graduates involved in the space program.

Stanley Slobe, an Aerospace engineering grad of 1949, works with the NASA program in Huntsville, Florida.

Byron Schrick, who works with NASA System Design and Development Section and particularly the Apollo applications program, graduated from ISU in 1964 with a degree in Aero E.

Leverne Seversike, an assistant professor of Aero E, has spent several summers working at NASA.

Robert Sheldahl, a 1962 Aero E grad of ISU, has worked for NASA at the Ames Research Center in the Magnetoplasmadynamics branch. He is now employed in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Larry Whitacre, who worked with the Apollo Command and service module propulsion systems, is an ISU grad in Aero E, 1962. He resides in Cape [Canaveral], Florida

Ronald Young, who now lives in Boulder, Colorado, once worked on developing an Operational Trajectory Section of the Saturn V. He is an Aero E grad of 1961.

Jack Brownson, who works with NASA at the Ames Research Center, is an Aero E. grad from the class of ‘57.

Ronald Petersburg, Aero E grad of 1960, is manager of the Space Flight Operations Dept. in Houston.

John Ritland, 1966 grad in Aero E, lives in Missouri and works primarily with digital [simulations] on the Gemini B spacecraft.

William Boehmelr, who helped define a protein of the Apollo applications program, is a 1948 graduate of ISU in the field of Aero E.

Richard Butin, a member of the Aero E grads of ’61, is currently doing work on the thermodynamics of the Airlock portion of the Apollo Application Program.

Iowa State Daily, “Iowa Graduates Play Role in Lunar Landing,” 24 July 1969.

Inside, there was little else about Apollo 11 other than a brief about space junk.

In other news:

• Students and faculty of both Iowa State and the University of Iowa banded together as the Student Investigative Committee, or (sic), to investigate the “social adaptability” of Iowa legislators. This was a reaction to the Legislative Budget and Financial Control Committee’s decision to form a special committee to investigate faculty and administrators from the three state universities of their “professional, academic and social adaptability.” While the committee talked about looking at spending and administrative efficiency, it became clear it was set up to look at counterculture students groups and professors who didn’t teach and/or believe in red-white-and-blue patriotism/America is #1. (sic) was set to put legislators under the microscope, including lawmakers who once spent a lot of time debating miniskirts. As soon as it was announced, some legislators, especially those representing regent schools, spoke out against it, and the legality of the probe was also questioned.
• Iowa State officials announced that Pammel Court would begin closing with the first phase beginning soon. Reaction from married students, who lived in Pammel Court was mixed.
• Speaking of student housing, in the fall, the residence halls on the west side of campus were no longer men-only. South Friley and Westgate Halls were going to house women. Friley and Helser Halls remained men’s residences.
• Don Smith (now Zaid Abdul-Aziz) was featured in a large profile as he was preparing to depart Ames for the Cincinnati Royals.
• On page one, the “Potpourri” feature beside the title was always worth reading. Today, reflecting sentiments from the legislative probe:

We have a state bird, we have a state flower, we have a state rock. It has been suggested that we have a state dog. Next thing you know, people will want a state legislature.

• …and of note, the previous edition’s “Potpourri,” likely stemming from Vice President Spiro T. Agnew’s comment about putting a man on Mars by 2000:

After the moon maybe we’ll overcome Venus, then Saturn, then Pluto, then maybe even poverty and hunger.