Randy Owen:  

Life Graduated from Boone in '63. Attended OJC for 2 years before finishing up at Auburn with a BS in Aerospace Engineering. As anyone who knew me back then, I was obsessed with rockets and missiles. Right out of Auburn in August 1968, I fulfilled a high school and college dream of helping to get man on the moon by working on the Apollo Service Propulsion System for Apollos 7 through 13 right there at KSC. After the Apollo 11 moonlanding, the space program was cut back severely and I moved to Hunstville, Alabama and worked on Skylab. Moved back to Orlando in mid 1972 and worked at Martin Marietta until mid 1975 when the Sprint program concluded. Then moved back to Huntsville where I have resided ever since. Met my wife, Nell, at work and married in May 1977. Got heavy into the activity of cave exploring from 1970 to the mid 80s, finding new caves and mapping them, both in north Alabama, Tennessee, and even in Florida 1973-75. Then my wife and I took hiking/photography trips to the Smokies, Rockies, Cascades, Canada, Utah, Nova Scotia, et. al. before getting into antique cars where today we have collected 24, which includes the '68 Charger I bought right off the showroom floor of Winter Park Dodge in 1969. The cars we have restored together are mostly "orphans" like Kaisers, Hudsons, Packards, Studebakers, Nashes and AMC. Since I left Martin Marietta, I worked for Teledyne Brown Engineering, Northrop, and McDonnell Douglas, which ~ 1998 was absorbed by Boeing where I work today on the Space Station following 25 years on the Spacelab program where for 15 years I managed a diverse systems engineering group. Occassionally get to the Orlando area but my has it changed. Went by Boone a few years ago when Orlando was having the big drought and for the first time ever saw Lake Lancaster dried up, but since it has come back. Have no kids, just a pair of cats. Tried to "relearn" playing the clarinet a few years ago, but that was short-lived. Not nearly as e...Expand for more