What My Father Taught Me: NASA Chief Technologist Mason Peck

May 23, 2013 2:56 PM Text Size: A . A . A My father, Richard E. Peck, has been writing science fiction novels since the late '60s. And now that he's downsizing and passing everything on to me, half my living room is covered in his old sci-fi books. There's no doubt that these works had a huge impact on how I turned out.

I remember in 1977, he was in full-writer mode and needed to have a study, but we didn't have a very big house. I helped him build a secret door to his writing room, made to look like a bookcase. I loved the idea of building that bookcase when I was 10 years old. I learned that it's not that difficult to build something fanciful if you hunker down and spend a weekend working hard.

That wasn't the only thing we built together. He bought this old Chevy van and did a conversion on it. We cut holes in the side, put bubble windows in, built some tables and chairs, and carpeted the interior with this shag-carpet extravaganza. Neither of us knew what we were doing, but we figured?how hard could it really be?

The ironic thing is, he actually discouraged me from pursuing engineering. He was an English professor, so he had no idea what it was all about. He had spent years working in a factory before going to the Marines, and he was afraid I would get into a similar line of blue-collar work.

Of course, now he's very happy I didn't listen to him?now that I'm turning science fiction into science fact.

As told to Jennings Brown

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/nasa/dad-advice-for-nasa-mason-peck-15506706?src=rss

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