Jim,

I envy the extent of your experience with him!�I met Werner when he was Director of Marshall Spacecraft Center. We spent an amazing 3+ hours together during our first meeting on so many subjects including our mutual acquaintance, Dr. Willy Ley. I had interviewed Dr. Ley when still in high school and spent an amazing weekend at his home on Long Island. I had a number of shorter exchanges with him during later years. I later came to know Werner even better after he left NASA. As a history buff and amateur archaeologist, I was able to visit Peenemunde, Nordhausen and many of the V2 sites. I was always interested in the chemistry and engineering of liquid rocket based propulsion and he got me invitations to several reviews of the Saturn propulsion system. Our greatest overlap was the dream of exploring Mars. He was focussed on human flight to Mars and I have always been interested in searching for signs of life or of a second genesis beyond the earth. Incredible memories! The man was the most spell-binding imagemaker I ever encountered!

Frank Grunthaner

On Apr 16, 2010, at 5:31:32 PM, "Jim Felder" <jim.felder@gmail.com> wrote:

From:   "Jim Felder" <jim.felder@gmail.com>
Subject:    Re: VW quality & Mercedes FI & Japanese FI - was - Massive Maintenance and cost
Date:   April 16, 2010 5:31:32 PM PDT
To: frankgrun <frankgrun@aol.com>
Cc: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com
Where did you run into Von Braun? My dad worked for him. Everybody
here knew him, we all went to the NASA picnics, tours of NASA, say him
at sears buying a lawnmower and stuff like that around town.

He gave me a "Ticket to Mars in Your Lifetime" once. I left it at my
grandparents' house and never saw it again. Wish I still had it!

Jim

On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 6:48 PM, frankgrun <frankgrun@aol.com> wrote:
> Neat! Knew the man well, never the daughter!
>
> Frank Grunthaner
>
> On Apr 16, 2010, at 4:14:57 PM, "Alistair Bell" <albell@SHAW.CA> wrote:
>
> From: �"Alistair Bell" <albell@SHAW.CA>
> Subject: � �Re: VW quality & Mercedes FI & Japanese FI - was - Massive
> Maintenance and cost
> Date: � April 16, 2010 4:14:57 PM PDT
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Ah ha, looks like the Triumph was just giving you the old "up yours"
> on account of your passenger's father.
>
> :)
>
> alistair
>
>
> On 16-Apr-10, at 2:45 PM, Jim Felder wrote:
> �Maybe it was the TR4 distributor that flew apart in the middle of a
> Georgia forest with
> Dr. Werner Von Braun's daughter in the passenger seat in the middle of
> the night on the way to Atlanta.
>