Re: Roy Neal, RIP

[Doug...]

In article >,
says...
> NBC News has just announced that the legendary space reporter Roy Neal passed
> away today at his home in North Carolina. He was 82 years old. His low key
> but well informed approach to broadcast reporting during Mercury, Gemini, and
> Apollo brought distinction to the NBC coverage. He should have been featured
> more during the Apollo Coverage rather than Huntley and Brinkley, who didn't
> want to do space coverage and it showed.

Roy Neal did do quite a bit of NBC's coverage, especially later in the
program. He did a fine job, and I really enjoyed his style.

In my opinion, NBC reached its peak of Apollo coverage with Apollo 16.
They had John Chancellor anchoring, with Roy Neal and Jim Hartz throwing
in expert opinions. And they had Dave Scott as their astronaut
commentator. I watched a lot of NBC for that mission.

I specifically remember Chancellor commenting about Young and Duke's
enthusiasm, stating, "I bet when these guys come home at night, they must
say things like 'Look at that! The key fit in the door! How about
that!'"

Precious moments. Yes, Roy Neal will be missed.

--

Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for | Doug Van Dorn
thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup |

[Christopher M. Jones]

"Cdsull502" > wrote:
> NBC News has just announced that the legendary space reporter Roy Neal passed
> away today at his home in North Carolina. He was 82 years old. His low key
> but well informed approach to broadcast reporting during Mercury, Gemini, and
> Apollo brought distinction to the NBC coverage. He should have been featured
> more during the Apollo Coverage rather than Huntley and Brinkley, who didn't
> want to do space coverage and it showed.

When I first saw this topic I was glancing at the topic
list while switching groups and I thought it said, in
the second or two that I had to look, "Re: Neil, RIP".
To which my response was "what?!?!?!" after which I
quickly switched back and reread it. Not as bad as I'd
thought, but still a pretty big loss. Especially when
you compare the space coverage back then with today's
science coverage in the news, even in the papers or on
the specialty channels, and see how much we've lost.
Personally I don't think it's an education thing or a
culture thing but just a business / journalism thing
(a bad business and bad journalism thing). Nonetheless,
it's a big loss.

[Gene DiGennaro]

"Christopher M. Jones" > wrote in message >...
> "Cdsull502" > wrote:
> > NBC News has just announced that the legendary space reporter Roy Neal passed
> > away today at his home in North Carolina. He was 82 years old. His low key
> > but well informed approach to broadcast reporting during Mercury, Gemini, and
> > Apollo brought distinction to the NBC coverage. He should have been featured
> > more during the Apollo Coverage rather than Huntley and Brinkley, who didn't
> > want to do space coverage and it showed.
>
> When I first saw this topic I was glancing at the topic
> list while switching groups and I thought it said, in
> the second or two that I had to look, "Re: Neil, RIP".
> To which my response was "what?!?!?!" after which I
> quickly switched back and reread it. Not as bad as I'd
> thought, but still a pretty big loss. Especially when
> you compare the space coverage back then with today's
> science coverage in the news, even in the papers or on
> the specialty channels, and see how much we've lost.
> Personally I don't think it's an education thing or a
> culture thing but just a business / journalism thing
> (a bad business and bad journalism thing). Nonetheless,
> it's a big loss.



We are losing the people who got us to the frontier at an alarming
rate. When I worked on RTG's for Teledyne a few years ago, most of the
fellows had been with the company for over 35 years. We didn't have
too many FNG's!

At the museum where I volunteer, we are in the process of trying to
get oral histories of employees of the Martin Co. Many of these people
started there careers on the line during WW2 and stayed until the
1980's. They were there during the rise and decline of aerospace.

Much of aviation history is well documented from about 1925-1950. From
there it kind of goes downhill, especially with space designs and
proposals. Most aerospace enthusiasts and historians are "propeller
heads" and are not very interested in saving artifacts from the early
jet and space age.

Gene

[G.Beat]

"Gene DiGennaro" > wrote in message
om...
> "Christopher M. Jones" > wrote in message
>...
> > "Cdsull502" > wrote:
> > > NBC News has just announced that the legendary space reporter Roy Neal
passed
> > > away today at his home in North Carolina. He was 82 years old.
[snip]
>
> At the museum where I volunteer, we are in the process of trying to
> get oral histories of employees of the Martin Co. Many of these people
> started there careers on the line during WW2 and stayed until the
> 1980's. They were there during the rise and decline of aerospace.
>
>
> Gene
>

I was just reading about the oral history program the Smithsonian has been
performing.
Neil Armstrong was interviewed in 2001 by historians Douglas Brinkley Jr.
and the late Stephen Ambrose.

Good idea!

Greg

[Jan Philips]

On 15 Aug 2003 23:11:07 GMT, (Cdsull502) wrote:

>NBC News has just announced that the legendary space reporter Roy Neal passed
>away today at his home in North Carolina. He was 82 years old. His low key
>but well informed approach to broadcast reporting during Mercury, Gemini, and

Just about two weeks ago we were listening to NASA oral history on the
radio. Roy Neil interviewed Shepard and some unknown historian
interviewed Glenn. My wife and I both noted how much, much better Roy
Neil was at interviewing than the other person. (Both interviews were
technically poor recordings.)

[Jan Philips]

On Mon, 18 Aug 2003 07:05:35 GMT, "G.Beat"
> wrote:

>I was just reading about the oral history program the Smithsonian has been
>performing.
>Neil Armstrong was interviewed in 2001 by historians Douglas Brinkley Jr.
>and the late Stephen Ambrose.
>
>Good idea!

See: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/aviatrix.htm