GodSpeed

I was once told a story from a retired executive at Boeing. He grew up sometime in the early 1930's in South East Ohio. As a young man, he was fascinated with rocks and arrowheads. When not at school, he would spend his time exploring nature, looking for anything he could find that was unique.
Arrowheads were especially exciting to find and he searched and searched and spent many hours scouring the fields in his hometown to find these hidden treasures. One day, in a field not too far from his home, he stumbled upon an almost unblemished arrowhead. Once he was done examining the jagged rock, he looked up and noticed that he had traveled much further than he had thought and was actually on a neighbors property. In a respectful manner, he knocked on the neighbors door in hopes that they might let him keep the small unassuming relic for his collection. Little did he know that John Glenn, then a post grad working on an engineering degree at Muskingum University, would be at the door of his parents home. Just as you might expect, John let him have the rock and he went on his way. Many years later, the boy grew into a man and worked his way up to an executive position at Boeing. He followed John Glenn's story as did many other Americans as he became an icon and American Hero. Time continued to pass and many years after he circled the earth, they met again. It was an aeronautical conference and award ceremony and John Glenn was the honored guest. After he received his award, the man approached John with a glass encased arrowhead, the same one he had collected all those years ago. He presented it to John and apparently he hadn't forgotten that little kid who knocked on his Parents door. John accepted the gift and thanked him.

I didn't need to hear this story to have John Glenn on my list of heroes. I was born and raised in Ohio and he makes ohioans very proud to say the least. I don't know that this story is written down anywhere, but it's one of the best I've ever heard. Hard not to think about how amazing a life it must be to have been born on earth, fight in World War II, test experimental aircraft and be one of the first people to orbit the earth. He later became the oldest man in space as well as an Ohio Senator.

I created this design last year in his honor. Godspeed.