Terry Martin:  

One nerd's story, in a small space capsule: Got interested in astronomy while in Thailand at age 9 or so; had good fun in Bangkok from 1954-1961 at ISB; went back to San Mateo CA for last 2 years of high school, which was rather a shock. I was in the first graduating class at Aragon High; then cross the Bay to Berkeley to study - guess what, astronomy. Started the Used Component Shop in Berkeley the summer after graduating in 1963, then went to U. of Hawaii for grad school. Got to see Mauna Kea on the Big Island develop as an observatory, and pursued my Ph.D in astronomy. Got the first one ever awarded by UH in that field, in 1975. Then off to UCLA for post-doc work, helping an infrared instrument team on the Viking Orbiters, which supported the Viking landers - the first successful landers on Mars, in 1976. That was mostly out of JPL in Pasadena, where I moved to in 1979 (actually La Canada Flintridge), and stayed there working on various space missions - Galileo, Mars Global Surveyor, and lastly Mars Recon Orbiter - until retiring in mid 2008. Living in Ashland OR since then and loving it. Thai Story #1: I think it was July 20 1955 - the total eclipse of the sun seen from the original campus of ISB. One of the longest solar eclipses ever (7 minutes), and there it was right at school! I was 9 years old. I think it helped me become an astronomer. Story 2: For awhile we leased the house of Gen. Chatchai Choonhavan, who was in Argentina. He later came back to Thailand and became Prime Minister. We used his beach cottage in Pattaya - the only house on the whole private beach. Now it is still there, but sur...Expand for more