Homer Hickam facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Homer Hickam
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Hickam Jr. in 2020
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| Born | Homer Hadley Hickam Jr. February 19, 1943 Coalwood, West Virginia, U.S. |
| Occupation | Author, Aerospace Engineer |
| Alma mater | Virginia Tech (BS) |
| Genre | Memoirs, historical fiction |
| Notable works | Rocket Boys: A Memoir Torpedo Junction Back to the Moon The Josh Thurlow series The Coalwood Way Sky of Stone Red Helmet We Are Not Afraid |
| Spouse | Linda Terry Hickam Paula Morgan (div. 1986) |
| Relatives | Homer Hickam Sr. (father) Elsie Hickam (mother) Jim Hickam (brother) |
| Military career | |
| Service/ |
U.S. Army |
| Years of service | 1964–1970 |
| Rank |  Captain (US) |
| Unit | Fourth Infantry Division |
| Battles/wars | Vietnam War |
| Awards | Bronze Star Medal Army Commendation Medal |
Homer Hadley Hickam Jr. (born February 19, 1943) is an American author and a former NASA engineer. He also served in the Vietnam War. He is famous for his 1998 book Rocket Boys, which was a New York Times best-selling book. This book was later made into the 1999 movie October Sky.
Hickam has written many other popular books. These include more memoirs and novels like the "Josh Thurlow" historical fiction series. His 2015 book Carrying Albert Home was also a best-seller. In 2021, he released a sequel to Rocket Boys called Don't Blow Yourself Up. His books have been translated into many different languages.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Homer H. Hickam Jr. was born in Coalwood, West Virginia. He grew up there with his parents, Homer Sr. and Elsie Hickam. He finished high school at Big Creek High School in 1960.
As a teenager, Homer and his friends loved building rockets. They called their group The Big Creek Missile Agency (BCMA). After trying many different designs, they became very good at it. They even won gold and silver medals at the 1960 National Science Fair for their rocket designs.
College Years at Virginia Tech
Hickam started college at Virginia Tech in 1960. He joined the school's Corps of Cadets. During his third year, he and some friends designed a special cannon. They built it to be used at football games and other school events.
They named the cannon "Skipper" to honor President John F. Kennedy. The cannon was made from brass that the cadets collected. Homer's father also helped by donating brass from Coalwood. Skipper has become a well-known symbol for Virginia Tech. Hickam earned his degree in industrial engineering in 1964.
Career Highlights
Military Service
Homer Hickam served in the U.S. Army for six years. He was a captain when he left the Army in 1970. He fought in the Vietnam War in 1967 and 1968. During his service, he was a first lieutenant and a combat engineer.
He received several awards for his service. These included the Bronze Star Medal and the Army Commendation Medal.
Working at NASA
After his military service, Hickam worked as an engineer for the U.S. Army from 1971 to 1981. In 1981, he started working for NASA at the Marshall Space Flight Center. He was an aerospace engineer.
At NASA, Homer Hickam helped train astronauts. He taught them about the science experiments they would do in space. He also trained them for spacewalks (EVA). He worked at the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator, where astronauts practiced in a large pool. This training helped them prepare for missions like fixing the Hubble Space Telescope. He also helped train the first Japanese astronauts. Before he retired from NASA in 1998, he managed the training for the International Space Station program.
Becoming an Author
Homer Hickam started writing in 1969 after returning from the Vietnam War. His first stories were about scuba diving. He later wrote about his experiences diving on shipwrecks from World War II. This led to his first book, Torpedo Junction, published in 1989.
His second book, Rocket Boys, began as a magazine article. In 1998, it was published as a full book. It tells the story of his life growing up in Coalwood, West Virginia, as the son of a coal miner. Rocket Boys became a huge success. It was translated into many languages and chosen as one of The New York Times' "Great Books of 1998."
In 1999, Universal Studios released the movie October Sky, which was based on Rocket Boys. The movie's title is an anagram of "Rocket Boys." Hickam has also helped create a musical play called Rocket Boys the Musical, which follows his book more closely.
Hickam's first fiction novel was Back to the Moon (1999). It is a techno-thriller about a team that takes over a space shuttle. He also wrote more memoirs about his hometown, Coalwood. These include The Coalwood Way (2000) and Sky of Stone (2001). In 2021, he published Don't Blow Yourself Up, which continues the story of his life after the "Rocket Boys" era.
He also wrote the popular "Josh Thurlow" series, which are historical novels set during World War II. Other books include Red Helmet (2008), a love story set in the Appalachian coalfields. He co-authored My Dream of Stars (2010) with Anousheh Ansari, the first female commercial astronaut. Hickam, who enjoys finding dinosaur fossils, also wrote The Dinosaur Hunter (2010).
He has a young-adult science-fiction series called the Helium-3 trilogy. The books are Crater, Crescent, and The Lunar Rescue Company. In 2015, he published Carrying Albert Home, which became a best-seller and won many awards.
Other Activities
In 2013, Hickam was chosen to be part of the Alabama Space Science Exhibition Commission. This group oversees Space Camp and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center museum. He was the chairman of this commission in 2019, which was the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing.
In 2018, Homer Hickam was appointed to the Users Advisory Group of the National Space Council. This group advises the Vice President on space matters.
Awards and Recognition
Homer Hickam has received many honors throughout his life.
- In 1984, he received Alabama's Distinguished Service Award for helping rescue people from a sunken boat.
- In 1996, he carried the Olympic Torch through Huntsville, Alabama, on its way to Atlanta.
- In 1999, the governor of West Virginia declared an annual "Rocket Boys Day" in his honor.
- In 2000, Virginia Tech named their class ring collection the Homer Hickam Collection.
- He received an honorary doctorate from Marshall University in 2007.
- In 2010, he received the Audie Murphy Patriotism Award.
- In 2013, he won the Clarence Cason Award for his non-fiction writing.
- In 2014, he won the Appalachian Heritage Writer's Award.
- In 2023, he was given the Vietnam Veterans of America's Lifetime Achievement Award.
- In 2024, he was named the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets Distinguished Alumni.
Books
Coalwood Series
- Rocket Boys: A Memoir (ISBN: 0-385-33320-X)
- The Coalwood Way (ISBN: 0-385-33516-4)
- Sky of Stone (ISBN: 0-440-24092-1)
- We Are Not Afraid (ISBN: 0-7573-0012-X)
- Carrying Albert Home (ISBN: 9780062325891)
- Don't Blow Yourself Up (ISBN: 1642938246)
- From Rocket Boys to October Sky An Amazon Kindle Single
Josh Thurlow Series
- The Keeper's Son (ISBN: 0-312-30189-8)
- The Ambassador's Son (ISBN: 0-312-30192-8)
- The Far Reaches (ISBN: 0-312-33475-3)
- Non-fiction companion volume: Torpedo Junction (ISBN: 0-440-21027-5)
Helium-3 Trilogy
- Crater
- Crescent
- Crater Trueblood and the Lunar Rescue Company
Other Books
- Back to the Moon: A Novel (ISBN: 0-440-23538-3)
- Red Helmet (ISBN: 1-59554-214-0)
- Torpedo Junction (ISBN: 1-55750-362-1)
- The Dinosaur Hunter (ISBN: 0-312-38378-9)
- Paco: The Cat Who Meowed in Space An Amazon Kindle Single
See also
In Spanish: Homer Hickam para niños
