Author Topic: At 97, scientist is last of the old breed at San Antonio’s former Brooks AFB  (Read 385 times)

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Houston Chronicle by  Sig Christenson Dec. 30, 2019

At 97, scientist is last of the old breed at San Antonio’s former Brooks AFB

Dr. Tom Tredici will concede that life isn’t quite the same at 97. He doesn’t move as fast as he used to, and he wakes up later than he did when flying B-17 missions in the darkness out of England.

And yes, his hours are a little different from the 4:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. routine in his lab when he worked on the gold visor that Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin would wear on the moon.

Now it’s more like 2 to 10 p.m. a couple days a week — all unpaid, of course. But the legendary scientist emeritus of the Air Force’s School of Aerospace Medicine isn’t resting on his many laurels.

He wouldn’t dream of coasting toward life’s finish line. He still drives his own car to the office and pores over research papers there. Tredici writes in longhand — he never learned to type.

Tredici is the sole survivor of the great scientists whom Brooks AFB produced. An ophthalmologist, he was one of its standout researchers working in Building 100, a short walk from the famous centrifuge used to train NASA astronauts.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/local/article/At-97-scientist-is-last-of-the-old-breed-at-San-14935324.php