Putting a human face on outer space, Perry native Sarah Weyer described her years as a technical editor for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Monday evening to about 15 people assembled in the Carnegie Library Museum in downtown Perry.[wpedon id=”85410″ align=”left”]
Calling Perry “a great place to grow up,” Weyer outlined her journey as a 1963 Drake University graduate in economics and retailing. After college, she married and worked as a personnel trainer at Younkers, supporting her husband while he earned an engineering degree from Iowa State University.
In 1967 they drove their red Volkswagen Beetle southward to Houston, where Weyer landed work at Boeing in personnel training and managing the company’s welcome center.
After seven years spent bearing and raising two sons, Weyer again entered the world of wage labor, working as an editor of flight control manuals for Onmiplan, a subcontractor to one of NASA’s prime contractors, Rockwell International.
“I got my little red pencil and edited everything I could,” Weyer said. “I learned a lot about the space program.” She also perfected her skills in spelling, punctuation, grammar and usage.
The engineering profession was even more thoroughly dominated by males in the 1970s and 1980s than it is today. Weyer encountered discrimination in the workplace, “but it wasn’t worth worry time,” she said.
By 1996 the owner of Omniplan pleaded guilty to about 180 criminal counts and was sentenced to two years in federal prison after it was found his company fraudulently overcharged NASA, using the funds to make a horror movie, operate a pizza franchise, vacation around the world and meet mortgage payments on two family homes and a ski lodge.
He was ordered to pay nearly $12 million in fines and restitution as part of a plea agreement, the largest case of contractor fraud ever perpetrated against NASA.
These high-dollar crimes occurred far above Weyer’s station as an editor and later as a manager in Omniplan’s documentation division. She recalled her years on America’s space team proudly.
“At one point during the moon mission,” she said, “they invited families to come in the night before the launch so we could see.” She said she later sat her 3-year-old son in front of the television so he could witness the moon landing, but he promptly fell asleep.
Weyer continued in her work until 1995, which included the era of the numerous space shuttle missions. She returned to Perry after an absence of 28 years, opening Around the World Clothing and designing and building her dream house in the country. She later relocated the retail business to Ames.
She looked back on her NASA years as part a tremendous team effort.
“I had a sense of pride to be involved in something so new and important,” Weyer said. “It was an honor to be a part of it.”
Weyer answered a number of questions from the audience and the moderators, Hometowan Heritage Curator Alissa Whitmore and Perry Public Library Director Mary Murphy, which co-sponsored the event as part of the library’s Discover Space summer program, running through July 27.
