Guenter Wendt dies at 86; storied overseer of early NASA space flights
John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, dubbed Guenter Wendt "The Pad Fuehrer."
Pete Conrad, the third man to walk on the moon, jokingly called him a "dictator."
And Alan Shepard, the first American in space, presented Wendt with a prop German helmet from "Hogan's Heroes" that was adorned with swastikas and labeled "Col. Guenter Klink."
As pad leader for NASA contractors at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and at what became known as the Kennedy Space Center, the German-born Wendt was in charge of the White Room, the controlled environment at the top of the launch tower where astronauts prepare to enter the spacecraft.
He would be the last person the astronauts saw before their spacecraft hatch was closed.
"I was privileged to send them all off," the heavily accented Wendt said in a 2002 interview with the Wichita Eagle.
Wendt, who was hospitalized last week for pneumonia and congestive heart failure and suffered a stroke while in the hospital, died Monday at his home in Merritt Island, Fla., said his daughter, Norma Wendt. He was 86....
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Pete Conrad, the third man to walk on the moon, jokingly called him a "dictator."
And Alan Shepard, the first American in space, presented Wendt with a prop German helmet from "Hogan's Heroes" that was adorned with swastikas and labeled "Col. Guenter Klink."
As pad leader for NASA contractors at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and at what became known as the Kennedy Space Center, the German-born Wendt was in charge of the White Room, the controlled environment at the top of the launch tower where astronauts prepare to enter the spacecraft.
He would be the last person the astronauts saw before their spacecraft hatch was closed.
"I was privileged to send them all off," the heavily accented Wendt said in a 2002 interview with the Wichita Eagle.
Wendt, who was hospitalized last week for pneumonia and congestive heart failure and suffered a stroke while in the hospital, died Monday at his home in Merritt Island, Fla., said his daughter, Norma Wendt. He was 86....