E. Jay Schaeffer; Finalist for NASA Flight

E. Jay Schaeffer, 61, one of five California finalists in the 1985 search for the first private citizen to fly in space. Schaeffer, a longtime English teacher at Belmont High School near downtown Los Angeles, was one of 11,146 teachers nationwide who applied to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for the teacher in space program. Chosen for the post was Christa McAuliffe, who with six other crew members was killed in the January, 1986, explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. Schaeffer retired in 1991 and died Monday in Los Angeles of the complications of AIDS.