While I expect to post more later today or at least this week, the following will suffice for now.
Jack Ramsay, coach of the Blazers during their championship 1976-1977 season, died at 89 of cancer. A consummate coach and teacher, canny observer both off the court and on, someone who handled himself with grace and discretion (traits missing so often these days)...someone whose enthusiasm for the sport of basketball made it all the more fun to experience. Another remembrance of times past now gone...before game 4 last night, I read of his recent struggles with cancer and wondered how he was faring...Dan Patrick's on-air remembrance today was wonderful because it was heartfelt, eloquent, and personal; qualities we should all wish to be remembered by.
John Houbolt's death at age 95 on April 15 was announced in today's New York Times. He was the creator of and guiding force behind the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous method of reaching the lunar surface that NASA used for the Apollo program. While I am unsure how much was fact, the opening to the HBO episode on the Lunar Module ("From the Earth to the Moon") succinctly captured the 'voice in the wilderness' quality of his quest to convince NASA officials that a third approach to landing men on the moon deserved serious consideration (the others: direct landing, earth orbit rendezvous). For this young enthusiast, it just made sense that LOR was the quickest, most efficient way to achieve the goal of a lunar landing by the end of the decade. It seems appropriate that someone with as clear a legacy as this engineer should be remembered as clearly and succinctly as he is today.
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