Astronaut and Akron native Judith Resnik remembered as brilliant, strong-willed

(This story was originally published in the Akron Beacon Journal on Jan. 29, 1986)

It was the children Tuesday who helped teacher Barbara Roduner deal with the loss of her childhood friend, astronaut Judith Resnik.

"They were so great," Mrs. Roduner said of her second-grade pupils at Akron's Case Elementary School. "I was so torn up, and they were hugging me and bringing me Kleenex."

Akron native Ms. Resnik, 36, this country's second woman in space, died on her second shuttle flight when Challenger exploded a little more than a minute after liftoff Tuesday, morning. Mrs. Roduner, who had known Ms. Resnik since grade school, said the astronaut was aware of the perils of space travel.

Space shuttle Challenger explosion: Looking back at tragedy that claimed Akron's Judith Resnik

"She was fully aware of the danger she was in," Mrs. Roduner said. "She loved it. She said she got a rush, a high from it.

"To me, to think of her in that "high' -- and I pray this is how it was -- going into space, doing what she loved to do, on her second mission....if she went in a flash, during that high....if she had to go, I hope it was like that -- that they didn't feel any pain.

"She really went out in a blaze of glory."

To her friends and family, it was no surprise that Judith Resnik became an astronaut. They said it was apparent from her earliest years that she could do anything she put her mind to -- and excel.

Since she already could read and do math, she was allowed to skip kindergarten and go directly to first grade. She was one of four 1966 Firestone High School graduates to wear gold mortarboards, meaning each had grade averages of 4 points or better. She had a 4.2.

Her typing was so good she was chosen outstanding business student among the Akron high schools even though she was -not a business student.

While other children just took piano lessons, she studied with two famous Akron musicians: the late Arthur Reginald and composer/pianist Pat Pace. Both told her parents she had the potential to become a concert pianist.

"She was so young, so full of promise. And such a wonderful person," Mrs. Roduner said.

During their years at Fairlawn Elementary, Simon Perkins Junior High and Firestone High School, Ms. Resnik, Mrs. Roduner and the latter's sister, Pam Free of Warren, N.J., were like "the Three Musketeers," Mrs. Roduner said.

Born April 5, 1949, Ms. Resnik was six days younger than Mrs. Roduner. Ms. Resnik was the daughter of Dr. Marvin Resnik, an Akron optometrist, and Sarah Polen Belfer of Bedford Heights, a former legal secretary. They lived at the corner of Chatham and Schocalog roads.

Judith loved to read, her father recalled, so he bought her a set of Nancy Drew books.

Her mother said Judith spent a lot of time practicing the piano and sometimes played chess with her brother, Charles, who is four years younger.

Now a radiologist in Richmond, Va., Charles once had a national ranking in chess.

Ms. Resnik's parents divorced when she was 17. Resnik then married Barbara Roduner's aunt, Betty, so Mrs. Roduner's best friend became her cousin by marriage.

Betty Resnik has identical twin daughters, Linda Reppert and Sandy Vilseck, who are 9 years older than Judith. Ms. Resnik became very close to them and in recent years referred to them as her sisters.

Marvin Resnik said his daughter had a beautiful voice, even though she most often would accompany him on the piano during informal songfests at home.

Resnik was a choir member at Beth El Congregation and a cantor for a congregation in Washington, Pa.

Ms. Resnik's paternal grandfather, Rabbi Jacob Resnik, moved his family from Russia to Palestine (now Israel). The rabbi and his wife, Anna, moved their family to the United States about 60 years ago. Jacob is deceased, but Anna Resnik, 92, lives in a senior citizens center near Cleveland.

Ms. Resnik's aunts and uncles on her father's side also live in the Cleveland area: Joseph Resnick (a clerical error at Ellis Island put the "c" in his name), now retired from his vending machine business; Harold, an optometrist; Dave, a retired pawnbroker; and Shirley, a piano teacher who owns her own business.

It is a close family, with a background of strong Jewish tradition. As a child, Judith went to the family dinners held every Friday, evening at her grandparents' home on Cleveland's west side.

Some family members carry on the Jewish traditions; others do not. But those who do practice had nothing bad to say about those who do not -- including Ms. Resnik.

Before her first flight, her father said she was approached by a Jewish magazine and asked to say that she was Jewish. She declined because she no longer actively practiced Judaism, he said.

He said then that his daughter once told him: "Dad, I don't want to be a Jewish astronaut, I don't want to be a Jewish woman astronaut, I just want to be an astronaut, period. I just want to go out in space and do my job."

Talent, intelligence, and, most of all, motivation, seem to run on both sides of Ms. Resnik's family. Ms. Resnik apparently inherited all those traits.

"Judy is a beautiful blend of her parents," Mrs. Roduner observed in 1984. "Her mother is highly organized and Judy has her precision. From Marv she got versatility and the concept that with intelligence and perseverence, you can do anything you want."

In high school, Ms. Resnik was a member of the chemistry and French clubs, National Honor Society and Class Week committee. She was secretary of the Math Club her senior year -- the only girl among 14 boys.

Teachers at Firestone said she was brilliant in math, achieving a perfect score on the advanced placement test that usually determines whether students can skip freshman math in college. But they said she was a well-rounded student, excelling in language, typing and other subjects as well.

Teachers and friends from those high school days say that while she was obviously highly intelligent, she did not come across as an "egghead." She laughed and kidded and cruised the Skyway Drive-In, just like most other teen- agers of that day.

After graduating from Firestone, Ms. Resnik got a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where she met her former husband, Michael Oldak. They married in Akron shortly after they graduated -- with the same degrees -- in 1970. They divorced after six years.

Ms. Resnik worked on part of her master's degree at the University of Pennsylvania and completed it at the University of Maryland. Between studies, she worked as an electrical engineer for RCA, first in the Missile and Surface Radar division in Moorestown, N.J., then at the RCA Service Co. in Springfield, Va.

She worked as a biomedical engineer at the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at the National Institutes of Health from 1974 to 1977 -- the same year she received her doctorate from the University of Maryland. Biomedical engineering puts the talents of an engineer to work for medicine, as in the artificial heart.

She moved to Redondo Beach, Calif., in 1977 to become senior systems engineer for Xerox Corp. It was then that she applied to be an astronaut after seeing a notice that NASA was looking for scientists. Her father said she even contacted former astronaut John Glenn for advice.

In January 1978, NASA announced that she was one of 35 astronaut candidates, six of whom were women.

"She jumped for joy," her father recalled.

Her family said NASA was her life.

Nothing made her happier than working long hours on such technical projects as the space shuttle's robot arm, or facing the challenges of training. She loved riding in the high-speed jets used for shuttle training and was learning a bit of flying herself.

In an interview at the Johnson Space Center in Houston in March 1984, Ms. Resnik said she hoped to stay with NASA at least another 10 to 20 years, perhaps working on the space station that could become a reality in that time. A very private person, even with her family, Ms. Resnik was loath to talk about herself to the press. But she would give long, detailed answers on anything regarding the mission.

She was always looking to the next mission, even before the one at hand had been completed.

She had to wait a long time for her first mission, not just because of the years of training. The mission on the first flight of the shuttle Discovery, originally scheduled for March 1984, was put off until June because of delays with other shuttle flights.

While many of her family and friends watched in dismay at Cape Canaveral, Fla., launches were aborted on June 25 and June 26, 1984. NASA finally combined two missions in order to get the shuttle schedule back on track. Ms. Resnik was part of the combined crew and finally made it to space on Aug. 29. Akron gave her a heroine's welcome on Oct. 18, 1984, which Mayor Tom Sawyer declared Judy Resnik Day. Ms. Resnik spoke to cheering crowds at the Civic Theatre and the Akron Roundtable.

Now Akron will be mourning her death.

Not as many of Ms. Resnik's friends and family went to Cape Canaveral to watch the second launch.

Mrs. Roduner, who said she was invited but could not go because of her teaching obligations, said Ms. Resnik had been dating a young man since her first flight and had given much of the space on her visitors bus to his family. She said she did not know the man's name or whether the relationship was serious.

"We were all so proud of the fact that she was an astronaut and so happy for her," Mrs. Roduner said.

"She was part of NASA; NASA was part of her. We thought it was a wonderful thing," she said. "This is so sad."

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Astronaut Judith Resnik remembered as brilliant, strong-willed