Tribute to a Pioneer

Apollo M.O. Smith was a student of Theodore von Karman in 1937 at Caltech, and he performed rocket experiments with Von Karman in the Arroyo Seco. On Tuesday, the memories of those early days were relived as the release of a postage stamp honoring von Karman was celebrated at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

Von Karman was a Hungarian aerodynamicist who directed Caltech’s Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory from its founding in the late 1920s until 1942. He led a group of students that included Smith in rocket tests in what was then an isolated area of the Arroyo; the test site later became JPL.

Fred Bowen, NASA resident office director, presided over the second-day ceremony. The stamp, designed by artist Chris Calle of Ridgefield, Conn., was officially issued on Monday at the opening ceremony of the World Space Congress in Washington.