I was born in Minneapolis, and grew up there until age 16. My Dad was a precision machinist, and he moved the family to Sunnyvale CA where he was employed by Lockheed Missiles & Space Co., now called Lockheed-Martin Space Co. My Dad worked during the early-1960s to develop the...
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I was born in Minneapolis, and grew up there until age 16. My Dad was a precision machinist, and he moved the family to Sunnyvale CA where he was employed by Lockheed Missiles & Space Co., now called Lockheed-Martin Space Co. My Dad worked during the early-1960s to develop the Lockheed Agena docking-target rocket used in the Project Gemini space program. Early In Project Gemini, three Agena target rockets had failed/exploded soon after launch; my Dad's goal was to improve the Agena's flight reliability. On March 16th 1966, NASA's top astronaut command-pilot, Neil Armstrong, successfully rendezvoused and docked his orbiting "Gemini-8" spacecraft with my Dad's recently perfected Agena target rocket. Dad's Agena rocket continued its precise orbit; four months later, the piloted "Gemini-10" spacecraft repeated the rendezvous/docking with a freshly launched Agena. This was followed, hours later on the same flight, by rendezvous with Dad's orbiting Agena. These were the first-ever space-dockings; the Russian cosmonauts' first docking was done two years later. All four American astronauts (Armstrong, Scott, Collins, & Young) who piloted the "Gemini-8" or "Gemini-10" spacecraft later had successful space flights and moon landings during Project Apollo.
I finished high school at Santa Clara, enrolled for a term at Stanford Univ., then completed my honors B.A. (psychology) at San Jose State College. My M.A. and Ph.D. were earned at the Univ. of Oregon, where I met and married my wife Shauna. My academic career spread across universities at several countries: Old Mexico (one year), Zambia (three years), and Malawi (nine years). I founded the Psychology Dept. at the Univ. of Malawi. Returning to the USA in 1989, I taught at Presbyterian College (SC) for five years. In 1995, I moved to Univ. of New Mexico's Gallup campus, later retiring in 2017. UNM-Gallup is the largest predominantly Native American campus in the entire USA. Five of the Indian students who completed my UNM psychology major went on, elsewhere, to earn the Ph.D. degree in psychology. A sixth Indian graduate will complete her Ph.D. in psychology in 2025, at the Univ. of North Dakota.
One of my long-term hobbies is Apple II computing; I have been a presenter at the Apple KansasFest conference at Kansas City MO during eight recent years. My 30 minute July 2023 presentation at KFest will be on modifying the hidden features of the Apple IIc's enhanced EPROM chip.
I also have a strong interest in natural uranium and geiger counters, especially because Jurassic Canyon, America's richest surface-level uranium field, is only sixty miles east of where I live. During summer 2021, I found two radioactive juvenile velociraptor dinosaur skull-fossils while collecting uranium rocks at the canyon. Since 2014, I have escorted about 15 other "uranium rockhounds" while collecting rocks at Jurassic Canyon.
Yet another seasonal hobby is hot air ballooning: I have flown in balloons 14 times during the past 21 years. Gallup NM has the USA's second largest annual balloon rally, held during the first full weekend every December. During December 2014, my pilot and I set the Gallup rally's all-time altitude record: 13,000 ft. Our balloon, named "Aimless," was small: only 80,000 cu. ft. That flight was a real adventure; at the time, it seemed like a flight to the edge of space; possibly a preview of NASA's forthcoming Project Artemis!
"Rockhound Steve" Buggie, 631 McKee Dr., Gallup NM 87301
