Growing up in the 1960's, one couldn't help but know of "Astronaut Wally Schirra". He was a household name. We watched his flights, as well as the others, with great anticipation. I have vivid memories of the launch of Apollo 7 in 1968 thinking that it took a lot of guts for those three guys to get into an Apollo spacecraft after the terrible fire of Apollo 1. At the same time, I knew how cool he had been during the aborted launch of Gemini 6 and, of course, he was an original Mercury astronaut. He was truly "the man".

I was introduced to Wally several years ago. During the introduction, naturally, Wally had to make a pun regarding my last name. I immediately fired back with a pun of my own. He countered, I fired back again. He then said "You're good! I like you!" I told him that my late father was a similar punster and that I had years and years of practice. A real friendship was born that evening.

Wally and his wife, Jo, took my wife and me into their personal lives. It was always fun going to visit the Schirra home. Jo can be funnier than Wally and knew how to keep him in check. We went out to dinner or lunch or just gabbed at his kitchen table. There I was, sitting in the home of a boyhood hero. The Schirra's, who have been in the company of kings, queens and presidents, became personal friends.

Like most men, Wally loved his "toys". I am a scale modeler and had built him a couple of models for his personal collection. I received a call from him one afternoon to tell me that the Mercury/Atlas model that I had built for him a couple of years earlier was the exact same scale of a model for the expansion of the San Diego Air and Space Museum, which he affectionately referred to as "Wally World". He then told me that they were using this model in their plans and wanted to know if it was alright with me if he donated the model to the museum for future display. I told him that I would be honored to have one of my models in a museum, but had to add the kicker "and I get a percentage of the admissions for my donation, right?" Wally roared but couldn't resist firing back at me with "you gave the model to me and I'm donating it, so the kickbacks are all mine!". A typical Wally response.

When my wife became ill with a terminal cancer diagnosis, Wally immediately told me that we needed to get away and have some down time - and offered the use of his home in Kauai. When he assured me that this wasn't one of his classic "gotchas", we were able to spend 10 wonderful days at one of the most beautiful places on earth. He was extremely generous. After my wife's passing, he sent me a handwritten letter of condolence saying, in part, "that there is no solution to health problems if destiny wins". These words came back to me after hearing of his sudden passing.

I will miss Wally very much. I will miss his puns, his jokes, his laugh, the unexpected phone calls, the e-mails, drinking KJ with him at the bar, trying to catch him on a turtle joke - but, most important, I will miss the man himself. He was truly one of a kind.

Wally left me with one final "gotcha". Within minutes of the public announcement of his passing, the server that hosts this web site did a complete meltdown due to so many simultaneous hits. Wally could never truly figure out why people loved to visit this site - and this was his last laugh at my expense. Thanks, Wally. We had over a million hits to this site within the first 36 hours. Remember our "agreement" at a buck a hit. Where should I send my bill? Gotcha!

I wish you smooth sailing and fair winds, Captain. Rest assured we are all still here to keep the dream and your memory alive.

With much love and admiration,
Your humble WebSlave - Tracy
5 May 2007

The Schirra family has suggested that you may want to make a donation in Wally's name to one of the following organizations:
 

The Schirra family thanks you for your generosity and outpouring of affection towards Wally