Von Braun had a vision to boost our brainpower

Lobbied legislature to bring research center to Huntsville, which transformed into UAH

On June 20, 1961, Dr. Wernher von Braun went to Montgomery seeking $3 million for a research institute at what became the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

"He went down to address the Legislature not knowing what kind of reception he would get," said Bob Ward, a former editor of The Huntsville Times and author of "Dr. Space: The Life of Wernher von Braun."

Fifty years ago, as the United States was first reaching into space, Von Braun took particular interest in expanding the programs and degrees available in the area, said Ed Buckbee, who was with NASA public affairs and worked with him at Marshall Space Flight Center.

"He was so concerned about the next generation of engineers and scientists," Buckbee said.

Von Braun, he said, was just as concerned with attracting the top people and companies from across the country to work here in the space program, and was ahead of his time in championing the connection between universities and state economic development.

Exhibits outlining UAH's past, present and future connections to NASA and space research are on display today at an open house from 2 to 5 p.m. in the Shelby Center for Science and Technology on campus, as part of the citywide celebration of the 50th Anniversary of America in Space.

Visitors will also learn about a new partnership to digitize the many space-related artifacts and collections of the UAH library and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center to make them available on the Web, and can contribute to an oral archive of Huntsville's space history.

UAH's own space history can be traced to the early 1950s and the "Huntsville Center," a branch of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. According to a history on UAH's Web site, in 1951 there was a Redstone Arsenal Institute of Graduate Studies that contracted for UA graduate programs for military and civil service workers on the arsenal, separate from classes offered by the Huntsville Center.

Not long after America orbited its first satellite, Explorer I, on Jan. 31, 1958, the city of Huntsville purchased 83 acres south of U.S. 72, which ultimately became the nucleus of today's UAH campus.

As Von Braun oversaw the work at Marshall that would lead to footprints on the moon, he and other NASA and Army officials lobbied to get the University of Alabama to establish a research institute here.

That led to his 1961 address to Alabama lawmakers - many of whom were World War II veterans, Ward said. How would they respond to the German rocket scientist?

"With his charisma and his natural speaking ability he won them over," Ward said. "It went over very, very well."

Von Braun told them that "Opportunity goes where the best people go, and the best people go where good education goes. To make Huntsville more attractive to technical and scientific people across the country - and to further develop the people we have now - the academic and research environment of Huntsville and Alabama must be improved.

"It's the university climate that brings the business. Let's be honest with ourselves. It's not water, or real estate, or labor or cheap taxes that brings industry to a city," Von Braun said. "It's brainpower. Nowadays, brainpower dumped in a desert will make it rich."

Ward said the legislators unanimously approved a $3 million bond issue; it was later ratified by voters, and the research institute became a reality and the foundation for the full-fledged research university here today.

Von Braun not only urged the men and women who came to work in the space program to get advanced degrees there, but he also coaxed his scientists and engineers to teach at the research institute.

The rest is a history that has certainly - as Von Braun predicted - made Huntsville richer, Buckbee said. He points to Cummings Research Park - second largest in the U.S. and fourth largest in the world - and the long list of area companies with space and technology ties as examples.

"Von Braun was really a man ahead of his time," Buckbee said. "I appreciate that more every day."