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Looking Back on 47 Incredible Years

8 June 2008

By Norma Brennan, Former Director of Publications, AIAA

In 1961, at the age of 22, I moved from the West Coast to New York in hopes of finding my dream (entry-level!) job in publishing. I would become a "reader" for a major publishing company and discover the next Ernest Hemmingway. I had $200 in my pocket. I bought a book called New York on $5 a Day and got a room at the Taft Hotel in Times Square for $8 a night. I bought The New York Times and began my search. My first interview was with McGraw Hill. I flunked their preliminary typing test and was politely told I wasn’t qualified.

My second interview, though, turned out much better (no typing test required). It was for a position as an editorial assistant at the American Rocket Society (ARS), and I was hired—luckily before my $200 ran out. Those days were truly the Golden Age of space, and it took no time at all to get caught up in the excitement. In October of that year, ARS sponsored the Space Flight Report to the Nation, a symposium held at the Waldorf Astoria. All staff were invited to the reception and banquet held at the close of the meeting. At the reception I was introduced to Wernher von Braun, Arthur C. Clark, Jimmy Doolittle, and other notables of the time. They were nice to me! They didn’t act as though I were an unimportant nobody! That was the first of many experiences with our members, and all of them had that one thing in common: a mutual respect and a complete absence of ego on their part.

I watched (on TV, of course) Alan Shepherd’s suborbital flight, John Glenn’s first venture into space, and the race for the moon. I felt as though, in some small way, I was actually a part of it all. In the mid-1960s, ARS merged with the Institute of the Aerospace Sciences (IAS) to form the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). ARS people were the loony rocketeers, and IAS represented the money that the loonies needed—I was always partial to the former group!

Our then-director of publications at AIAA had a secretary who was, more often than not, out of the office reading for a part in one or another Broadway play. We resented her because we had to do all of her work when she was missing. Eventually she landed a part in some road show and quit. The next thing we knew, we saw her on the Mash TV show — Loretta Swit, better known as Hot Lips Hoolihan!

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, I went on a freelance basis so that I could spend more time with my children. I continued to work for AIAA but also did assignments for other publishers, including Harcourt Brace, where I reported to Priscilla (Mrs. Alger Hiss).

At this point you have come to the (probably true) conclusion that I’m a shameless name-dropper. But some of the best people I’ve met over the years came later, and, though their names might not be as universally recognized, I met many of them through SSP and other professional organizations. Those people selflessly shared their knowledge and experience with me, as well as their always-welcome advice.

I retired at the end of April 2008, and I am eternally grateful to all of you for helping to make my career a truly memorable one. Thank you!