Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | T | The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)

The right stuff for NASA.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Diane Dietz The Register-Guard

Rhoda Love, 73, got down on the floor of her south Eugene home on her blue jeaned knees, gazed at photographs of her mop-headed son frozen in play, and mused.

"He was just an ordinary-looking kid," she said. "You'd never know he was going to grow up to be an astronaut, would you?"

Stan Love, son of Rhoda and her husband, Glen, is a hale and hearty NASA astronaut who will fly next fall to the international space station.

That boy is today a brilliant man who stands among the elite few with the right stuff - a rising star - and so difficult for his parents to explain.

How do you raise an astronaut?

Not like kids are raised today, the Loves said. You don't push, don't nag, don't muss, don't fuss, no day camp, no genius camp, no private school, no alternative school.

The Loves took their cues from the nonchalance school of parenting with their two offspring, Stan and his younger sister, Jenny.

"I just kind of sat back and watched them grow," Rhoda said.

"We had no particular twig bending in mind. They just did their own thing, found what they liked," Glen said.

Grand adventure

The Loves did provide a steady base for their kids. They moved into a...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!