Jake Garn facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jake Garn
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| United States Senator from Utah |
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| In office December 21, 1974 – January 3, 1993 |
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| Preceded by | Wallace F. Bennett |
| Succeeded by | Bob Bennett |
| 28th Mayor of Salt Lake City | |
| In office December 1972 – December 20, 1974 |
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| Preceded by | J. Bracken Lee |
| Succeeded by | Conrad B. Harrison |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Edwin Jacob Garn
October 12, 1932 Richfield, Utah, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 6 |
| Education | University of Utah (BS) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Navy |
| Service years | 1956–1960 (active) 1963–1979 (reserve) |
| Unit | Utah Air National Guard |
| Space career | |
| NASA payload specialist (congressional observer) |
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Time in space
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6d 23h 55m |
| Missions | STS-51-D |
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Mission insignia
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Jake Garn, born on October 12, 1932, is an American politician from Utah. He is a member of the Republican Party and served as a United States Senator for Utah from 1974 to 1993. Jake Garn made history as the first person from the United States Congress to fly into space! He traveled aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in April 1985 as a special crew member called a payload specialist for NASA. Before becoming a Senator, he was the mayor of Salt Lake City from 1972 to 1974.
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Early Life and Education
Jake Garn was born in Richfield, Utah. His father, Ed Garn, was a pilot in World War I. Jake went to East High School, Clayton Middle School, and Uintah Elementary School. He earned a degree in business and finance from the University of Utah in 1955.
Jake Garn's Career Highlights
Jake Garn used to work as an insurance executive. He served in the United States Navy as a pilot, flying planes like the Martin P5M Marlin. He also flew for the Utah Air National Guard, where he piloted large refueling aircraft such as the KC-97L and KC-135A. He retired from the military as a colonel in 1979. After his space mission, he was promoted to brigadier general. He had flown over 17,000 hours in military planes before his space journey.
Serving Salt Lake City
Before he was elected to the Senate, Garn worked for the Salt Lake City commission for four years. He was then elected as the mayor of Salt Lake City in 1971 and started his term in 1972. He was the last Republican to hold that position for a long time. Garn was also very involved with the Utah League of Cities and Towns, serving as its president in 1972. He also held leadership roles in the National League of Cities.
Time as a U.S. Senator
Garn was first elected to the United States Senate in 1974. He took over from Wallace F. Bennett, whose son, Bob Bennett, later became Garn's successor in the Senate. Garn was re-elected in 1980 with a huge 74 percent of the votes, which was the biggest win in a statewide election in Utah's history at that time. He was re-elected again in 1986.
Garn was the chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. This committee deals with important topics like housing and money. He also served on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which decides how government money is spent. He was a leader within the Republican Party from 1979 to 1984.
Garn retired from the Senate in 1992. He supports the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which aims to change how presidents are elected.
Jake Garn's Spaceflight Mission
Jake Garn wanted to fly on the Space Shuttle because he was in charge of the Senate committee that decided how much money NASA would get. He also had a lot of experience flying planes. He had even flown a special prototype of the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit bomber and driven a new Army tank!
He started asking NASA about flying on the Shuttle in 1981. NASA had already planned to send regular citizens, like artists or teachers, into space. However, it was a big surprise when they announced in November 1984 that a member of Congress would go. Garn said his trip would be a "fact-finding" mission. He wanted to see how the money he voted for was being used.
His mission, STS-51-D, launched and landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in April 1985. The main goals were to put two communication satellites into orbit and to do science experiments in space. As a payload specialist, Garn's job was to observe and to be part of medical tests about how people adapt to space. By the end of his mission, Garn had traveled over 2.5 million miles (4 million kilometers) in 108 orbits around Earth, spending over 167 hours in space.
Garn experienced severe space sickness during his journey. It was so well-known that astronauts jokingly created a "Garn scale" for space sickness, where "one Garn" meant the highest level of sickness! Some astronauts who didn't like the idea of non-professional astronauts flying thought Garn's sickness showed why it was a bad idea. However, Garn was in excellent physical shape and had been flying since he was 16. Astronaut Charles Bolden said Garn was "the ideal candidate" because he was a skilled Navy pilot with more flight hours than many astronauts. Another crew member, Charles D. Walker, said that Garn's experience helped NASA a lot by bringing credibility back to Congress.
The Jake Garn Mission Simulator and Training Facility, which is NASA's main training center for astronauts, is named after him.
After his space trip, he helped write a novel called Night Launch in 1989. The book is about terrorists taking control of the Space Shuttle Discovery during a fictional first joint flight between NASA and the USSR.
Personal Life and Family
Jake Garn first married Hazel Rhae Thompson in 1957. They had four children: Jacob, Susan, Ellen, and Jeffrey. Sadly, Hazel passed away in a car accident in 1976. In 1977, he married Kathleen Brewerton, who had a son named Brook from a previous marriage. Jake and Kathleen had two children together, Matthew and Jennifer. Kathleen passed away in 2018. Jake Garn is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In 1986, Jake Garn showed his love for his family by donating a kidney to his 27-year-old daughter, Susan. She was suffering from kidney failure due to diabetes.
