A former student now working with NASA in Alabama recently led an effort to name some small asteroids after retired Walker County educators Jim and Shirley Smith as a show of appreciation.
In discussing the renaming in an email to the Smiths and others, William J. Cooke, who works as the lead official in the NASA Meteoroids Environments Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, said they had inspired him to become interested in astronomy at a young age.
"I grew up in Walker County during the '60s and early ‘70s,” he said.
"As with many other students, Jim and Shirley played a major role in my life, allowing me to be a ‘nerd' and encouraging me to pursue astronomy, which led to my career here at NASA.
"They gave me far more than knowledge – Jim and Shirley taught me tolerance, always let me know that I was unique and special, and provided a second home at the old Science Center in Rock Spring. Looking back through the experience of 50 years, I realize how very important those things were, and how truly special Jim and Shirley are.”
Mr. Cooke added that he had actually started on the work renaming the main belt asteroids a couple of miles in diameter after the Smiths several years ago.
"It has taken two years longer than expected, but I am now happy to announce that, as of June 11, the International Astronomical Union has decreed that the asteroid formerly called 2000 HQ57, will now be known as asteroid (30282) Jamessmith and that asteroid 2000 HS57, discovered on the same night by the same telescope, will be known as (30283) Shirleysmith.
"Congratulations Jim and Shirley! You two will now traverse the skies forever."
In a 2011 story in chattanoogan.com after the Walker County Science and Technology Center was named in his honor, Mr. Smith said that he had become interested in astronomy at a young age going to the Brainerd Observatory and hearing Clarence Jones give programs.
The former Walker County School Board member later took astronomy under Dr. Karel Hujer at the University of Chattanooga and in 1967 served as the first director of a planetarium in Rock Spring after writing a grant for it.
Regarding teaching young people to have an interest in science, Mr. Smith in 2011 said, "I found both for myself and for the students I taught that the study of astronomy was a great motivator. It created a thirst for knowledge. If you get a student turned on to learning, he will learn in spite of the teacher.”