Cotton Museum to host talk about Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
Sep. 29—This coming Tuesday, attendees at the Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum's monthly Lunch Break Special presentation will have an opportunity to learn more about the 2003 Columbia Shuttle disaster — a tragedy in which seven astronauts died as their shuttle disintegrated while re-entering the atmosphere over Texas and Louisiana.
The speaker for the program will be Robert Hurst, who was director of homeland security for Nacogdoches County at the time of the disaster and acted as incident commander for all response and recovery operations in the county for the first two weeks after the incident.
With his background in emergency management and his bachelor's degree in business administration, Hurst published a book in 2008, "Leadership When The Sky Falls: Leadership Lessons From the Shuttle Columbia Disaster," in which he talks about how the crisis experience helped him increase his own leadership skills.
"The book is valuable to anyone placed in a leadership role," Hurst told KTRE on the fifth anniversary of the disaster. "The reader will also learn about the behind the scenes events of the shuttle Columbia disaster."
He currently serves as emergency management coordinator for Delta County.
The Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum's program featuring Hurst will be Tuesday at noon at the museum.
Admission will be free for museum members. Otherwise, general admission to the museum will be $8 for adults; $6 for seniors, veterans and college students and $3 for those who are 18 or younger.
