Dale Lewis
(March, 2009)
It's Not Rocket Science...or is it?
Atrium resident Dale Lewis is a retired NASA rocket scientist and a singer / songwriter. Dale is busy selling songs on his website out of his Atrium apartment. "I don’t get sick. I don’t believe in it. The mind rules the body!" he says.
The Hamlet chair volleyball team is the team to beat now that Dale Lewis has joined the team. Dale played volleyball for Tennessee Senior Olympics and won a state gold medal. He won medals at the district, state, and national championships in volleyball and track and field. Dale qualified for the national Senior Olympics in track and field for the 100 meter sprint, shot put, and discus. His top speed was 13 seconds for the 100 meter. This speed earned him a second place medal, although, he never made the finals. "There was serious competition in the senior games, he says. Many of the athletes were former Olympic medallists who have competed all their lives". He competed in the discus against Olympian Phil Mulkey.
Dale was raised in Mercerville, Ohio and served in the Air Force during the Korean War. He graduated from Ohio State in engineering and went to work in Oak Ridge, Tennessee working on atomic energy for Union Carbide. He went to work for NASA in 1960 for the Apollo program as an aerospace engineer. He followed President Kennedy’s orders to put a man on the moon. "They worked our tails off! They tried to kill us with hours, but it was fun every minute."
Dale worked on the launch team with the original seven astronauts at Cape Canaveral: Scott M. Carpenter, Gordon L. Cooper, Jr, John H. Glenn, Virgil I. 'Gus' Grissom, Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Alan B. Shepard, and Donald K. 'Deke' Slayton. Dale engineered launch vehicles, booster rockets, and countdown procedures. His team was responsible for firing the rockets and getting Apollo into orbit. It was an exciting time to be sure. He also worked with Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong. Dale escorted former President Lyndon Johnson to view the launch of the first man to walk on the moon.
(Dale is pictured in the lower right corner)
Later in his career, Dale personally managed the Office of Space Science Total Resources, which was half of NASA’s budget. This job involved dealing with congressional committees.
"If the country doesn’t go broke, (Dale has a vivid sense of humor) there is a continued future for space travel. So many benefits have come out of the program such as the development of the GPS system. There were so many communication and telecommunication advances due to the space program."
Dale took early retirement from NASA to concentrate on his true love, music. He left Washington D.C. for Tennessee and formed a country band. He performed as lead singer and guitarist in the region and wrote 25 songs.
Dale’s wife, Joanne, was in declining health the last few years and died shortly after they moved to Hamlet. "The good people at Hamlet are keeping me going", he says. He loves being near his son David, who is quality control manager at Avery Dennison in Solon. David lives in Auburn with his wife Shelly, daughter Paige, and son Matt.
Dale has a full recording studio in his Hamlet apartment that he invented to record and sell his songs on his website. He produces music on his piano and sings into a microphone. An amplifier is plugged into his computer and he records onto his computer hard drive. He uses a software program to process the sound, then produces music digitally directly to his computer and uploads to his website. The website is set up so viewers can "click and play" his songs directly from his website. Some of his favorite songs that he has written are "The Garage Sale Song," "Mother Sang Rock of Ages," "Space Shuttle Love," and "Don’t Play that Song Again." "I’m actually making a little money selling my songs now," he says.
Dale’s professional name is his given name, Asa Dale Lewis. To view and play Dale’s songs on the internet, go to ASADALELEWIS@IACmusic.com, or http://iacmusic.com/artist.aspx?ID=19459.
