Oct. 7 Board of Education meeting
Covered by Documenter Stacie Simon (see her notes here)
At its Oct. 7 meeting, the Akron Board of Education unanimously approved to accept a unique donation from a former student. The board said yes to the placement of a rocketship memorial and two bronze statues depicting Judith Resnik and Jean Hixson to be installed at Resnik Community Learning Center.
“I wanted to acknowledge the efforts of one of our awesome community members,” Robinson told the board at the meeting. He said he was approached “about an item that he (the donor) and his company would like to place at Resnik CLC.” Robinson in turn brought this to the board for approval.
The donor, Paul Thomarios, offered to cover the cost of design, creation and installation of the memorial rocketship and two statues. Akron Public Schools will pay nothing toward this effort.
Akron native gives back
Thomarios, of Thomarios Construction, made the donation. He runs a $200 million specialty paint, coatings and construction company headquartered in Copley. The son of Greek immigrants is an APS graduate. He was classmates with Resnik (one of the first six female NASA astronauts) and a student of 30-year APS teacher Hixon (the second woman to break the sound barrier).
According to Robinson, this memorial to be placed in front of Resnik CLC, close to West Market Street, in Northwest Akron, could inspire students and Akronites who pass the school every day.
Thomarios previously donated the John W. Heisman statue that stands at the University of Akron’s InfoCision Stadium. A Cleveland native, Heisman coached at Buchtel College (now the University of Akron) from 1893-1894. He went on to eventually establish a prestigious annual award for the best college football player; that award now bears his name.
Resnik ascended to the highest heights
Judith Resnik is known nationally as one of the six crew members killed when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986. Today’s Akronites may know the school that bears her name (called Fairlawn Elementary when Resnik attended in the 1950s) and from her NASA portrait that hangs in the Firestone High School Wall of Fame.
Before graduating as valedictorian from Firestone High School in 1966, Resnik also earned the distinction of being the only woman in the country to earn a perfect SAT score that year.
Resnik studied electrical engineering at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh), graduating in 1970. She worked as a design engineer for RCA, completing various systems for NASA and the Navy during that time. Resnik then turned to biomedical applications of engineering, earning a Ph.D. for her work on electrical currents in the retina.
Aspirations of space flight led Resnik to earn her pilot’s license to boost her qualifications for NASA. Resnik joined NASA in 1978 and flew her first space mission in 1984.
Her second mission, STS-51-L, was planned for 1986 and would launch research satellites and spectrometers into orbit. The mission ended seconds after launch when Challenger’s starboard rocket booster exploded due to a faulty seal. The accident killed all seven crew members.
APS educator Hixon soared at speed
Thomarios’ donation also honors his teacher Jean Hixson. Before Hixson’s 30-year career with Akron Public Schools, she was a distinguished pilot in the U.S. Air Force. Hixson earned her pilot’s license at 18 and joined the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots, flying B-25s on test runs during World War II.
Post-war, Hixson remained on the front lines of women in aviation while serving in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, working in the Flight Simulator Techniques division at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. In 1957, she became the second woman to break the sound barrier, flying a Lockheed F-94C Starfire.
Four years later, Hixson joined Mercury 13, a NASA research project testing women for space flight. Though testing revealed positive indications that women could tolerate space flight, arguments that women in space went against the social order (made by John Glenn and others) prevented the project from yielding any female astronauts.
Hixson never made it to space, nor did any of her Mercury 13 colleagues, but their experiences are a key part of the legacy of women in aviation.
Hixson retired from the USAF Reserves in 1982. She completed 30 years with Akron Public Schools in 1983 and died of cancer at age 61 in 1984.
Read Documenter Stacie Simon’s notes here: