| Floyd H. Hunsaker Jr. |
FLOYD H. HUNSAKER, JR. (Age 73)
NASA Mechanical Designer Floyd died on December
31, 2010, at home after a four-year battle with bladder
cancer.
He was born on November 4, 1937, in the former Garfield Memorial
Hospital in Washington, D. C., the son of Floyd H. Hunsaker of Camp Point,
Illinois, and Irene V. Hunsaker of Cleveland, Ohio.
He grew up in the city and attended Bancroft Elementary School, Central
Junior/Senior High School, MacFarland Junior High School and Theodore
Roosevelt High School, graduating in 1955. At 6 feet, 4 inches tall, he was a
gifted athlete, and won the District of Columbia city high jump championships in
1954 and 1955. This was before the advent of the "Fosbury Flop", and the high
jump landing area was a below-ground-level sawdust pit with concrete block
edging.
He was hired by Melpar in Falls Church, Virginia, as a junior draftsman in
1956, and during his four years there worked on the radar system for the B-58
bomber among other projects.
He attended the University of Maryland for two years beginning in 1960, and
was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1962. During basic training in Fort Jackson,
South Carolina, he passed a battery of tests and was assigned to the Army
Security Agency (now the Defense Security Agency) and was sent to
Rothwestin, Germany, where he served as a morse code interceptor on the
border of East Germany. He took his honorable discharge overseas in 1964, and
traveled around Europe on a Eurail Pass for two months.
Upon his return to D.C., and after a short stint at Farrington Electronics in
Virginia, he was hired by NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Maryland, as a mechanical designer. He was fortunate to come under
the guidance of Dr. Keith W. Olgivie, who is one of the top solar wind
investigators in the world. During his 46-year career with NASA he worked on
designing numerous scientific space flight instruments; most notable,
magnetometers on Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 which visited the outer planets.
Also, he collaborated in the design of the solar wind instrument on Mariner
10, which made successful flybys of Mercury and Venus. Other design projects
included vacuum chambers, ion guns, spectrometers, calibration fixtures, and
electric field instruments. Among the many honors he received were NASA
Group Achievement Awards and Goddard Exceptional Achievement Awards.
One of his lifelong passions was basketball, and he played in high school and
on various local teams, and also while he was in the Army. His Goddard
inter-league team (the "Green Monsters") won the championship 12 times, and
he continued to play until the age of 46. Another passion was golf. At various
times he was a member of Montgomery Country Club, Ft. Meade, and The
Woods Resort in Hedgesville, West Virginia, where he and his sister own a house
on the 12th green of the Mountain View Course.
His other interests included following the local sports teams, especially the
Washington Nationals. He attended the final Washington Senators game at RFK
Stadium in 1971. Frank Howard had hit a homerun, and the Senators were
leading going into the 9th inning, at which point the fans stormed the field, pulled
up the bases and ran off with them. Unable to continue, it ended up being a
forfeit to the New York Yankees. But, it was exciting.
He also enjoyed reading, watching TV (favorite show: "Jeopardy"), and
driving his Chrysler 300C.
He is survived by his sister, Patricia, who was at his side throughout his life.
Also three cousins in Camp Point, Illinois: Robert W. Hunsaker (wife Ramona),
Darryl G. Hunsaker (wife Anne), and Alvin C. Hunsaker, and their children and
grandchildren.
Friends may call at Hines-Rinaldi Funeral Home, 11800 New Hampshire
Avenue, Silver Spring, MD, from 2 PM to 4 PM and 6 PM to 8 PM on
Wednesday, January 5, 2011, with services at the funeral home on Thursday,
January 6, 2011, at 11 AM.
Interment at Gate of Heaven Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be
made to the Montgomery County Humane Society/Aspin Hill Pet Cemetery
Maintenance, 14645 Rothgeb Drive, Rockville, MD 20850. or Holy Cross Home
Care & Hospice, 11800 Tech Road, #240, Silver Spring, MD 20904.
www.hinesrinaldifuneralhome.com
Published in The Washington Post on January 4, 2011
