John Glenn
was a gentle lion. A warrior, a marine, and among the original
seven astronauts.
He became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962 on the Mercury
Spacecraft he named 'Friendship 7'. With distinction he served his country as a US
Senator (D-OH) from 1974 to 1998. He also was the first man to return to space
at the age of 77, for a nine-day mission on the Shuttle Discovery. At a stage
in life when most resign themselves to living out their old age John Glenn demonstrated
better than I ever could that it is not age itself but rather good health
habits that matter most in being able to accomplish lofty goals.
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| Sen. John Glenn and Dr. Vernikos, 1999 |
Yet that is
not what I and those whose path he crossed will remember him for. He was a
gentle giant, with a twinkle in his eye, firm and determined to achieve
whatever goal he set for himself. Hard working with a small devoted staff, who
were there to work with him not for him. Glenn did his own research, and hand-wrote
his own speeches and reports. He was accessible to anyone at any time. Why is
this worth mentioning? Because I have not come across any such work habits by
any Senator or Congressman in my years of interaction with those on Capitol
Hill.
In the 1990s
while serving on the Senate Special Committee on Aging he noticed similarities
between his personal experience of the effects of Space-flight and those he
heard presented by Aging experts. He consistently emphasized these similarities, proposing
that much could be learned from space to help the elderly, a perspective I strongly held too. There was much
antagonism to this view, well before these similarities were proven correct, and yet he persevered.
Eager to
show that he would carry his own weight during training for shuttle mission STS-98,
he studied while on flights to and from Washington while maintaining his duties in
the Senate. At the time I was Director of Life Sciences at NASA and our Administrator had asked me point blank: “Joan do you
think we should fly John Glenn again?” That was a heavy responsibility. We set
about to build the case both for and against his flying with the science community
and the National Institute on Aging. What would we learn from flying an older
man even though this was not just any man? Many were concerned that it would be
dangerous to fly someone of that age. My
concern was not his ability to withstand the space mission but his ability to
recover after returning to Earth. He
proved all of us wrong and he loved doing that. During and after the mission his health data were similar to those of
his crew-mates 30 to 40 years younger! Ten days after landing he was
sharing his experiences with me at the National Press Club and other venues.
His schedule was grueling. He used his flight to promote research into Aging in
general and support funding for research programs at the National Institutes of
Health and non-profit organizations well after he had retired from the Senate.
I was particularly
lucky when later he offered to write the Foreword to my book TheG-Connection – Harness Gravity and Reverse Aging (2004) where the Space and
Aging story was presented for the first time.
Finally,
last year I was speaking to the Ohio Physiotherapist Association in Columbus, Ohio and Senator Glenn had wanted to attend.
He was unwell unfortunately and could not come but surprised me by sending a touching
introduction to my talk.
John Glenn was a
great man, a gent, and someone I could rely on. Though we may not have known each
other as well as others may have, we shared the golden years of the space
program, and the space-aging connection discovery. Best of all he made me feel
he was my friend.
Goodnight
sweet prince.
