- Year
- 1968
- By
- Chaffee, Don L. (as told to C. Donald Chrysler)
- Provenance
- Title page signed by author C. Donald Chrysler and by Roger Chaffee’s parents, Blanche M. and Don L. Chaffee.
- Section
- Apollo · Mission reports & chronologies
- Signed
- Signed by C. Donald Chrysler, Blanche M. Chaffee & Don L. Chaffee
- Catalog
- Catalog F · NASA Missions
Biography of Apollo 1 astronaut Roger B. Chaffee, copyrighted in 1968 by Chaffee’s father, Don L. Chaffee, and published by Kregel Publications of Grand Rapids, Michigan, as told to C. Donald Chrysler by Don L. Chaffee and family. First edition, printed in the United States.
The foreword is by then-Congressman Gerald R. Ford, a fellow Grand Rapids native who wrote of the parallels between his own life and Chaffee’s: both grew up in Grand Rapids, belonged to the same Boy Scout troop in different eras, became Eagle Scouts, played high school football, and served in the Navy as lieutenant commanders.
The book’s fourteen chapters trace Chaffee from infancy (“The Quarantine Baby—And How He Grew”) through Boy Scouts, college, his courtship of his wife Martha, Navy service, and astronaut training, closing with chapters on the January 27 1967 Apollo 1 fire, “In Memoriam,” and “Aftermath.” The author’s acknowledgments thank Chaffee’s widow, Martha, for many of the book’s personal recollections, along with Grand Rapids Press staffer Bob Day and Public Affairs Office personnel at the Kennedy Space Center. A portion of the book’s royalties were designated to Roger B. Chaffee memorial scholarship funds at Central High School in Grand Rapids and at Purdue University.
The dust jacket shows White, Grissom, and Chaffee during water-egress training on the front cover, the Apollo 1 crew patch on the front flap, and an Agena liftoff on the back flap.
