Homer Hickam

About Homer Hickam

Homer Hadley Hickam, Jr. (born February 19, 1943) is an American author, Vietnam veteran, and a former NASA engineer. His autobiographical novel Rocket Boys: A Memoir, was a #1 New York Times best-seller, is studied in many American and international school systems, and was the basis for the popular film October Sky. Hickam has also written a number of best-selling memoirs and novels, his latest the "Josh Thurlow" historical fiction novels. His books have been translated into several languages. He is married to Linda Terry Hickam, an artist and his first editor and assistant.

Homer H. Hickam was the second son of Homer, Sr. and Elsie Hickam and was raised in Coalwood, West Virginia. He graduated from Big Creek High School in 1960 and from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, better known as Virginia Tech, in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering. While at Virginia Tech he designed a cannon to be fired at football games and during cadet corps functions. The cannon was cast out of brass that had been collected from cadet belt buckles and caps, and scrap brass he got from his father, the superintendent of a coal mine. The cannon was named "The Skipper" after President John F. Kennedy's assassination and has become an icon for the Hokies. It is now retired and resides in honor in the Virginia Tech Cadet Corps Museum. It has had two successors, Skipper II and III. Traditionally, it is fired after the Hokies score a touchdown. A United States Army veteran, Hickam served as a First Lieutenant in the Fourth Infantry Division during the Vietnam War in 1967 and 1968. For his service, he earned the Commendation and Bronze Star Medals. He served six years on active duty, leaving the Army as a Captain.

Hickam was an engineer for the United States Army Aviation and Missile Command from 1971 to 1978 assigned to Huntsville. For three years (1978-81), he was an engineer for the 7th Army Training Command in Germany. He began employment with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Marshall Space Flight Center in 1981 as an aerospace engineer. During his NASA career, Hickam worked in spacecraft design and crew training. His specialties at NASA included training astronauts on science payloads, and extra-vehicular activities (EVA). He also trained astronaut crews for many Spacelab and Space Shuttle missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope deployment mission, the first two Hubble repair missions, Spacelab-J (the first Japanese astronauts), and the Solar Max repair mission. Prior to his retirement from federal service in 1998, Hickam was the Payload Training Manager for the International Space Station Program.