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Donna Shirley
Mars Exploration Program
When I was 12 or so I started reading science fiction. And, I read Arthur C. Clarke's The Sands of Mars, and Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles, and Heinlein's books about Mars, and just got completely fascinated with the idea of Mars and going into space and space travel. And so, when I got to college, there really wasn't a space program. I got to college in 1958 and that was the year that Explorer One was orbited, following Sputnik. And so, you really couldn't specialize in space, nobody knew how to do it. And so, I ended up still working on airplanes.
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Donna Shirley
Mars Exploration Program
I was disappointed in a way because I had 25 years of experience communicating with the media and all that sort of stuff, so I was the one that was out in front of the TV cameras. My boss and I, Norm Haynes, were doing that, so that the reporters wouldn't be in bothering the people flying the mission. So, I'm out in front of CNN cameras and all I can see is this little monitor and it's a really hot, bright July 4th day, and so I can't see very well. And the anchor's saying, "What's going on? What's going on? I can't see what's going on! Get me a sunshade! And so I'd see them jumping up and down and I'd say, "Well, they must have made it." And, then we'd hear something on the earphones. So, I was experiencing this kind of vicariously, but I mean, it was just an incredibly emotional moment.
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Donna Shirley
Mars Exploration Program
The lander camera could take pictures of the ramp the rover was coming down. And, there was a young scientist named Justin Mackie, who had figured out how to program the camera to turn, so that it would catch the rover as it was doing things. So, it would make a little -- like a jerky movie. And so, the camera -- the first picture comes back and there's just the ramp sitting there. And I'm thinking, "Oh, my God, the rover didn't get up," or whatever. And then, the next picture and then all of a sudden you see the ramp bend and then the rover comes into view. And then -- so there's six images for it to get down on the ground. And, this guy from Mission Control, Art Thompson says, "Six wheels on soil." And it was just the greatest experience, it was a terrific, really terrific high.
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Frederick W. Smith
Founder, Federal Express
By the early '70s when I'd gotten out of the service it was very clear that this new society was coming in earnest. And so, at that point I said, "What the hell, let's try to put it together." And that's how FedEx came to be. And then from that point forward, the requirements for this type of system were so profound and so big, really for the next 25 years to this date we've simply been running just to keep up with the requirements. And that's what led to the hundreds of planes and the thousands of trucks. I wish it was something that I could say I was so smart. It was just like Pogo the Possum said, "If you want to be a great leader, find a big parade and run in front of it." And that's what we've been doing for the last quarter century.
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Stephen Sondheim
Award-winning Composer and Lyricist
The primary thing about Hal (Prince), for me, is his enthusiasm, and impatience. I'm a low flame and he's a high flame, and that's one of the things that makes us a good team. Coming away from any meeting with Hal, or a discussion on the phone, or anything like that, I always want to write. And in the case of Company Some of the shows I did with Hal, he was very much responsible for the building and the growth of the show. Some, like Sweeney Todd or Night Music, were just shows that were sort of brought to him. But Company Follies was brought to him. Jim Goldman and I brought it to him. But then he had a take on how to stage it, which then affected the writing. So the thing is, it's primarily about stimulation, and of course his theatrical imagination. I mean, apart from the skill too. But in terms of the personal.
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