Biography on homer hickam

American author and engineer (born 1943)

Homer Hadley Hickam Jr. (born February 19, 1943) is an American author, Vietnam War veteran, and a former NASA engineer who trained the first Japanese astronauts. His 1998 memoirRocket Boys (also published as October Sky) was a New York Times Best Seller and was the basis for the 1999 film October Sky. Hickam's body of written work also includes several additional best-selling memoirs and novels, including the "Josh Thurlow" historical fiction novels, his 2015 best-selling Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of a Man, his Wife, and her Alligator and in 2021 the sequel to Rocket Boys titled Don't Blow Yourself Up: The Further Adventures and Travails of the Rocket Boy of October Sky. His books have been translated into many languages.

Early life and education

Homer H. Hickam Jr. is the second son of Homer Sr. and Elsie Gardener Hickam (née Lavender). He was born and raised in Coalwood, West Virginia, and graduated from Big Creek High School in 1960. He and friends Roy Lee Cooke (born December 25, 1941), Sherman Siers (June 15, 1942 – September 11, 1976), Jimmy O'Dell Carroll (born June 30, 1942), Willie "Billy" Rose, and Quentin Wilson (November 21, 1942 – August 30, 2019) became amateur rocket builders and called themselves The Big Creek Missile Agency (BCMA). After many generations of designs, they qualified for the 1960 National Science Fair and won a gold and silver medal in the area of propulsion.

Virginia Tech and Skipper

Hickam attended Virginia Tech in 1960 and joined the school's Corps of Cadets. In his junior year, he and a few classmates designed a cannon for football games and school functions. They named the cannon "Skipper" in honor of President John F. Kennedy. Skipper was cast out of brass collected from the cadets and has become an icon for Virginia Tech.

2014 schedule of events

(Homer Hadley Hickam, Jr.)

PERSONAL:

Born February 19, 1943, in Coalwood, WV; son of Homer (a superintendent of a coal mine) and Elsie Hickam; married first wife, 1977 (divorced, 1986); married Linda Terry (an artist, editor, and assistant), 1998. Education: Virginia Polytechnic Institute, B.S., 1964. Hobbies and other interests: Scuba diving.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Huntsville, AL, and Virgin Islands. Agent—The Literary Group International, Stanford Bldg., 51 E. 25th St., Ste. 401, New York, NY 10010. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer and aerospace engineer. Thiokol Corporation, staff member, c. 1964-71; U.S. Army Missile Command, Huntsville, AL, and Germany, engineer, 1971-81; National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, aerospace engineer and training manager for astronauts, 1981-98. Military service: U.S. Army, first lieutenant in Vietnam, 1967-68; became captain; received Army Commendation Medal and Bronze Star.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Distinguished Service Award, State of Alabama, 1984; Rocket Boys selected as one of "Great Books of 1998," New York Times; National Book Critics Circle Award nomination, best biography, 1998, for Rocket Boys; honored by the State of West Virginia, 1999, for "his support of his home state and his distinguished career as both an engineer and author."

WRITINGS:

"JOSH THURLOW" SERIES

The Keeper's Son, Thomas Dunne Books (New York, NY), 2003.

The Ambassador's Son, Thomas Dunne Books (New York, NY), 2005.

The Far Reaches, Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2007.

OTHER

Torpedo Junction: U-boat War off America's East Coast, 1942 (nonfiction), Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 1989.

Rocket Boys: A Memoir, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1998, published as October Sky, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Back to the Moon (novel), Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1999.

The Coalwood Way (memoir), D

Author Homer Hadley Hickam Jr. was born February 19, 1943, in Coalwood, McDowell County. He graduated from nearby Big Creek High School in 1960 and from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1964 with a B.S. in industrial engineering. Hickam served in the army in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Army Commendation and Bronze Star medals. He went to work for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Marshall Space Flight Center in 1981 as an aerospace engineer. He retired from NASA in 1998.

Hickam's first book was Torpedo Junction, a history of World War II submarine warfare off America's east coast, published in 1989. In 1998, Hickam's second book, Rocket Boys: A Memoir, the story of his life in the town of Coalwood, was published. A runaway bestseller, Rocket Boys was selected by the New York Times as one of its "Great Books of 1998" and nominated by the National Book Critics Circle as Best Biography of 1998. In February 1999, Universal Studios released the popular film October Sky, based on Rocket Boys.

Hickam's first novel, Back to the Moon, was published in 1999. The Coalwood Way, another memoir of Hickam's hometown, was published in 2000, and his third Coalwood book, Sky of Stone: A Memoir, was published in 2001. An inspirational book, We Are Not Afraid: Strength and Courage from the Town That Inspired the #1 Bestseller and Award-Winning Movie October Sky, was published in 2002. In 2021, Hickam published another long-awaited book about Coalwood: Don’t Blow Yourself Up: The Further True Adventures and Travails of the Rocket Boy of October Sky.

Hickam also wrote a series of novels featuring Coast Guard Lt. Josh Thurlow, beginning with The Keeper's Son, published in October 2003. Three additional novels in this series followed, along with books on space exploration and a biography of female astronaut Anousheh Ansari.

Other books include Red Helmet (2008) set in Highcoal, West Virginia; The Dinosaur Hun