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Twitter | Advertising | Archives | SupportGuenter Wendt, 85, 'Pad Leader' for NASA's moon missions, dies, Collectspace
"Guenter Wendt, the original pad leader for NASA's manned space program who was the last man the Apollo astronauts saw before launching to the moon, died at his home in Merritt Island, Fla., early Monday morning after being hospitalized for congestive heart failure and then suffering a stroke. He was 85."
Mr. Wendt was a man who got the job done, and done right.
My father (who passed away himself last month) worked closely with him, as Dad was the Asst. Fire Chief for the Cape during Apollo and was tasked with astronaut-egress in the event that an evacuation of the spacecraft was called for.
Those two argued with each other from time to time, each passionately defending their point of view, but they always came to consensus and the astronauts were always well-cared for entering, leaving and on-top of the Apollo spacecraft.
Dad recalled Gunther warmly and always had good things to say about him. In his later years, when he would see the numerous documentaries that would show Apollo, he would always cheerfully call out his name in a mock German accent and if anyone was around, tell a humorous story about him.
One of those stories (I heard it I think 75-100 times) was how word came down from Wendt's office that if anyone touched an astronaut's space-suit on their way into the capsule, they would be fired. This got back to the astronauts, and Wally Schirra, ever the comedian that he was, made sure that he leaned on one of the firemen who rode the elevator up to Swing Arm 9. The man would try to make room for Wally, but Wally would continue to lean all over the guy, and of course he was terrified of being seen by Gunther Wendt and summarily dismissed. Schirra got a big kick out of that, as did the Fire Office and eventually, Gunther's staff when they learned about the shenanigans.
After retiring in 1989, Wendt served as a consultant for several TV documentaries and movies, including the Discovery Channel’s In Search of Liberty Bell 7, which chronicled the trials and tribulations of finding and recovering the sunken Mercury spacecraft used during the second U.S. human space mission.
I had an opportunity to get to know Guenter during the expedition, which I covered as a correspondent for Discovery Channel Online, the predecessor to Discovery News. The expedition was far longer and more grueling than any of us expected, but you wouldn’t know that by talking to Guenter. The only signs of wear and tear on that energetic senior citizen -- he was 75 or so at the time -- were the accumulation of Band-aids on his arms, legs and even his face, as he nursed cuts and bruises from bumping into the ship’s walls and rails. Not that he’d let rolling waves and spirited seas stop him from being in the thick of things.
I was worried for Guenter, but it was me -- half his age -- who ended up sidelined with a blown-out knee. When the long-lost spaceship was finally hauled up on deck, I had recovered enough to hobble around on crutches. It was Guenter who offered a steadying hand.
3 Comments
What a grand old man. Truely, an enormously larger than life character.