[Dialogue] NASA software developer moves on ...

[Janice Ulangca]

What a fine story, Tim - thanks for sharing it.  Let me add what I know of 
Abe Ulangca's confidence in you.  Abe was one of a group of Order people - 
Len Hockley and Gordon Harper were among them - who could see early 
potential in electronic communication that most of us could not imagine. 
Abe was absolutely passionate about e-mail possibilities for connecting 
colleagues, because he knew what significant work was being done and the 
power of connection.  As the list servs developed, he continued to work with 
them, and passed on tips for newbies to help them get involved.  The final 
few months of his life he talked to you, Tim, about taking over the 
administration of the Dialogue and O:E list servs.  And when you agreed, he 
felt great relief, and he rejoiced that the work he cared so much about 
would be in such capable hands.

I find I take e-mail, and even the list servs, for granted these days. But 
as I remember how eagerly we read the global order reports in the Rochester 
House before e-mail, I do find the new ways of connection to be awe 
inspiring.  And when we consider the number and complexity of global 
challenges these days, Those Who Care need all the help we can get!

Now you and Susan have a whole new set of life possibilities.  With your new 
freedom, the choices can seem so many as to be daunting.  And no person, no 
family, can do everything.   Many blessings as you have new experiences and 
find just the right focuses and avenues of service for you both.  Thank you 
for staying in touch, and for helping all of us to do the same.

Much admiration and appreciation to you Tim - and to your great partner, 
Susan.

Janice Ulangca

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Tim Wegner writes:

Yesterday I turned in my badges at the United Space Alliance.

My NASA career started when Susan and I were re-assigned from Egypt
to Houston. The only thing I knew about the Space Shuttle was what I
had read in Time magazines bought on the streets in Cairo.

When we arrived at the Houston House, Susan stayed "in house" and I
was assigned to work.  Larry Henschen helped me arrange an interview
with McDonnell Douglas, a NASA contractor.  I had never programmed a
computer and had no qualification other than a Master's degree in
mathematics and an "all-but-thesis" not-quite-a-PhD. In retrospect,
those were great credentials, since the state of computer programming
when I was in college was using punch cards. When I was working
programming NASA's first Unix computers, I remember thinking "I wish
I had studied Unix in college" - then realizing that Unix didn't
exist when I was in college! But the principles and laws of
mathematics and physics I learned in the late 60's have stood up very
well. My career has been spent in the abstract world of mathematical
models of gravity, drag, solar pressure, and accelerations - space,
the final frontier. Hard to beat that.

I missed the first four shuttle flights but arrived in time for
STS-5. My first project was an analysis of the shuttle drag model. My
supervisors weren't watching closely, so I learned FORTRAN on a
UNISYS mainframe and implemented my results in a program called HOPE.
(There was another program called LOVE, but not one called FAITH.)
Shortly thereafter I was re-assigned as a programmer, and remained a
software developer (and software project manager) for my whole
career, which extended more then a year past the last Shuttle flight
in July 2011. I ended up working for various NASA contractors for a
bit over 30 years.

Shortly after I started at NASA, Larry Henschen and I were
instrumental in helping Lynn Oden, another Houston House order
member, in also getting a job. For a few years Lynn and I commutred
together. Lynn retired a few years ago, having had a fine  career as
a Shuttle Navigation Flight Controller.

Susan and I never "left" the Houston House; it melted away around us
as the Order transitioned away from corporate living. Conna Wilkinson
was the last one to leave when she moved back to Oklahoma. So Susan
and I turned out the lights of the Houston House and got an
apartment, and later bought a house. I am grateful today for all the
experiences we had assigned to San Franscisco, San Jose, Melbourne,
Adelaide, Bayad, and finally Houston. Susan and I arrived in Houston
with no assets but no debts in our mid-thirties, and are now both
retired. We still have no debts, but now we have a few assets. I
amazed that that was possible!

I am still working with a small group of your colleagues keeping the
wedgeblade.net glue connecting our far flung community alive.

Retirement is, of course, just another "assignment" to new
challenges.

Tim Wegner