posted 05-29-2009 01:08 PM               

Photo credit: J.L. Pickering

In 1993, Haney was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame, providing this biographical profile:

NASA's 'Voice of Mission Control.'

Paul Prichard Haney was born in Akron, Ohio in 1928. He put himself through Kent State University by working nights for the Associated Press, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism in 1945. After working for newspapers in Erie, Pennsylvania and Memphis, Tennessee, he joined the staff at the Washington, D.C. Evening Star newspaper in 1954.

Three months after the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was formed in 1958, Haney joined the organization as an information officer, and from 1960 to 1962, served as NASA's first News Director. In that position, he managed the Cape Canaveral and Project Mercury information programs. His work in the Mercury program set the standard for all subsequent NASA information efforts.

From 1962 to 1963, Paul Haney was the Public Affairs Officer for the Office of Manned Space Flight. In September 1963, he moved to Houston, Texas, and as Public Affairs Officer for the Manned Spaceflight Center (now the Johnson Space Center), directed the information flowing out of the Gemini and Apollo manned spaceflight programs. In this position he became well known as the "Voice of NASA's Mission Control," and the "Voice of Apollo." He also established the first NASA open-door museum at the Johnson Space Center (formally known as the Manned Spacecraft Center) in Houston. Paul Haney served with distinction throughout the Gemini program and the early phases of the Apollo program. He retired from NASA on April 25, 1969, after the successful Apollo 9 mission.

"It was during [the] mission that this... thing about the drinking club that had started at Edwards came out. Are you a [turtle]... The original pictures are in the Smithsonian... We [flew] a television camera on 7, and [Wally] Schirra called them the cue cards. One of them they held up said, 'Paul Haney, are you a Turtle?" Another card said, "Deke Slayton, are you a Turtle?'"

"...if [a turtle] out in public [is] asked if [he is] a Turtle, [the] answer [is], 'You bet your sweet ass I am.' [Refusal or lack of the proper answer meant] you had to buy a drink for everybody within earshot who were real turtles. And we were going live that afternoon to about 300 million people, including... turtles in Chile and Japan and all over the world."

"That's the only time [the center director Bob] Gilruth ever called me into his office and said, 'What is... this [all about]? Why did you answer that question?'"

"I never could figure out where the hell he got my console phone number. He called me during the mission, though, just out of the blue."

He said, "Hi. This is Bob Hope."

I said, "Yeah, and this is [Genghis Kahn]."

He said, "No, this really is Bob Hope."

"You're not Bob Hope."

He says, "Yeah, I am."

I said, "Where did you grow up?"

He says, "Well, I was born in England, and then I moved to Cleveland."

I said, "What part of Cleveland?"

He says, "Oh. You must know Cleveland."

I said, "Yeah, I know Cleveland. Where did you grow up in Cleveland?"

He [said Eudid Avenue in the 50s].

I said, "Hi, Bob. What can I do for you?"

Photo credit: NASA

From left: Barbara Eden, Bob Hope, Donn Eisele, Walt Cunningham, Wally Schirra and Paul Haney.

"It is difficult to encapsulate or explain what this heroic era meant to me, particularly within the constraints of a few pages."

A memorial service will be conducted at the Alamogordo Funeral Home at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 20, 2009. Those in attendance are invited to join us immediately afterward at the Desert Palms Mobile Home Estates, 2000 E. First Street, in the community recreation center for good conversation, memories and refreshments.

In lieu of flowers, those wishing to make a contribution in Paul's name may do so to the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, or an Alamogordo cancer association such as Alamogordo Home Care-Hospice or the CAPPED organization. It was his wish that contributions be given to help those in need in the Alamogordo area.

posted 05-29-2009 03:36 PM               

A couple of weeks later, I received the cover back. Paul signed his name but also wrote in big letters BE CONFIDENT!

Whenever I have been discouraged with respect to the space program I have always thought of Paul's optimistic message.

posted 05-29-2009 05:41 PM               

I never got to meet Paul, but some years back I was seeking information for my book "Fallen Astronauts" and Wally Schirra directed me to contact Paul, one of his great 'gotcha' friends. For me, it was the beginning of a long cyberspace friendship, and Paul could always be relied on when I needed some information for a writing project. It usually began "Paul, do you have any good stories about...?" and over the next day or so I would have two or three pages of hilarious anecdotes on the subject in question, written in Paul's inimitable style. Many of these stories, as Robert mentioned, featured in Paul's lengthy foreword for "Into That Silent Sea," and I know that my writing partner Francis French will be equally devastated by today's news.

I don't think Paul would have minded my telling everyone here that he didn't actually sit down and deliberately write the foreword on request. It was actually comprised of anecdotal material he had sent me over the years which was plundered by us for the best stories, approved by Paul and then placed in chronological order. The incomplete draft was then fired over to Paul, who filled in the gaps with a few appropriate words, and there was our foreword. He was incredibly happy with the result, and the book it was in. Of course he sent me a lot of material of a ribald or even scurrilous nature that Francis and I couldn't even consider putting in the book; it was just a bunch of background stories that he wanted to share with us. He is one person who should have written a book about the space program, but he told me that Jim Schefter had already stolen his best stories for Jim's book "The Race".

I know that Paul had been seriously and chronically ill in recent times, but every so often a new message would find its way into my inbox. He would often share jokes with me that he and Wally Schirra had passed between them (he missed Wally terribly after he died), and he remained close friends with Walt Cunningham.

A couple of things about Paul that might not be commonly known: he was the unseen Voice of Apollo commentating throughout the film "Capricorn One." Also, I know how much it would have meant to him to have been around for the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11. Sadly he did not quite make it. He was a proud man, and never prouder than when he revealed to me he was born on the 20th of July.

posted 05-29-2009 08:38 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by ColinBurgess:
Many of these stories, as Robert mentioned, featured in Paul's lengthy foreword for "Into That Silent Sea," and I know that my writing partner Francis French will be equally devastated by today's news.

---

As Colin says, Paul was a wonderful supplier of unique first-hand anecdotes, printable and unprintable. I'm still of the opinion that his foreword is the best part of "Into That Silent Sea."

I was working with Paul in recent months to fashion some of the stories we did not use in the foreword into an article. We were far enough along that I plan on finishing it.

It also makes me think again of how fortunate we were to talk with Wally Schirra, Gordo Cooper, Andrian Nikolayev and, now, Paul for the book in such depth while there was still time...

posted 05-30-2009 07:14 PM               

I unfortunately was unable to contact him for his stories.