‘If you were in trouble, people going by would stop and help you out.’

During a 35-year-career as an aeronautical engineer, Andrew (A.J.) Kubica worked on everything from the X-1 to the space shuttle. He received an award from NASA for work on reaction controls for the Mercury program. At home he’s best known as mechanic for the family cars and rescuer of motorists in distress. Kubica and his wife, Betty, live in Woodland Hills. The other day I’m going down to get some gas for my wagon, and just as I pulled down the freeway off-ramp, I saw this car with a hood up. It was in a place where it was a little dangerous because people come off the freeway pretty fast. You could have had an accident.

Then I saw this woman trying to go across the street and I just hollered out, “Hey, is that your car?” And she said, “Yes.” I says, “What’s the problem?” And she said, “It got awful hot.”

I was thinking about pushing her. But then I says the heck with that, I got the rope in there, I’ll just pull her out of there. All I wanted to do was get her out of that predicament and take it down to this neighborhood garage. She said, “I can’t drive that thing without power steering.”

I says, “You just drive mine, and I’ll drive yours.” She says, “But I don’t know how to tow a car.” “Honey,” I says, “you’re gonna learn real fast. I’ve raised five daughters, and if they can tow, you can tow. Just back it up a little bit, and I’ll hook on to you.” Then I says, “Whatever you do, just drive carefully. If you come to that red light, make sure we slow down so you go through it on the green.” She did that perfectly, and she just pulled right into the garage, just like a pro, and I pulled right up behind her.

I always have a tow rope in the back end of my car, and chains and shovel and water. And I have a couple cans of oil, some transmission fluid, some hose clamps and belts and some tools.

If somebody’s broken down, I’ll try to stop. They’re awful thankful, just like when they help me I’m thankful.

Back in ‘53, we had just gotten married, and we’re going through high country, Montana or Wyoming. I was pulling a small trailer with our wedding gifts and things. I was up around 10,000 feet, and the doggone car quit on me. This guy driving a Volkswagen bug sees me there in trouble. He just whips that little Volkswagen right around and the next thing I know, he was hooked to me. He snaked me up over the top of that mountain. I didn’t think he could do anything with that little bug, but he did. I was going to pay him, but he wouldn’t hear of that.

In Los Angeles, because of the freeways, whenever I see somebody in trouble, usually all I’m able to do is call up the CHP and say there’s somebody disabled, would you send a tow truck.

One of the first times that I ever stopped to help anyone, I had my cousin from New York City with me. She was up visiting us on the farm in the Adirondacks. We were driving along, and I looked over and there was this car off the road. The young fellow was obviously stuck in some soft sand. I just pulled over and threw a rope out and yanked him out. It took me all of about a minute to pull him out of that sand, and he was grateful for it. My cousin couldn’t understand why I had stopped. She was from New York City.

That wasn’t unusual where I came from. If you were born and raised in that country, it didn’t matter who the party was. If you were in trouble, people going by would stop and help you out. It was their way of life. I owe an awful lot to my parents for having brought me up in that frame of mind.

I remember going to Mexico one time, and this lady pulled off on the side of the road, and her car was hot. I walked back there with a couple gallons of water and put it in her car after it cooled down. That’s all she needed. Never saw her before, never see her again, but that’s all right. I’ve had them do the same thing for me, see. Life is a precious thing, and people are very interesting. I find most of the people, they’re fantastic people. They’re just trying to get along. Sometimes they run into trouble.