We begin tonight with some sad news out of Washington
state,
where former NASA astronaut and San Diego resident William Anders
died in a plane crash today.
Anders flew on the Apollo 8 mission,
becoming one of the first humans to circle the moon
and capturing one of the most significant photographs in human
history.
Oh my
God, look at that picture over there.
Oh, I got already. Oh,
I got beautiful shot. William B Anders was best known
for taking the iconic Earthrise photo,
capturing the Earth rising above the moon's surface.
He snapped it during the Apollo 8 mission in
1968, the first human Space Flight to reach the moon.
Earthrise was later described as the most influential environmental photo
ever taken.
Anders was born in Hong Kong but grew up in
San Diego,
attending Grossmont High School in El Cajon as well as
a military prep Academy.
After graduation, he went to the United States Naval Academy
and was selected to be a NASA astronaut in
1964. He was the backup pilot for several missions before
piloting the Apollo 8 mission.
Following his time with NASA,
Anders transitioned into government service and the private sector,
later establishing a nonprofit and a flight museum.
He died Friday while performing an aerial loop near San
Juan Island in Washington state.
He is survived by his wife,
six children and 13 grandchildren.
William Anders was 90 years old.
And joining me now is another person who is suffering
a personal loss.
Today is very close friend of William Anders,
president and CEO of the San Diego Air and Space
Museum,
Jim Kidrick. And thank you so much for being here
so late tonight to talk about your friend.
Well, it was a tragic loss,
Bill, and of course, Bill and Valerie.
Valerie is suffering as as it's a family.
I talked to Greg, one of the sons,
and GAIL, one of the daughters who lives here.
And it's just such a surprise.
Bill was not only an accomplished astronaut,
he was an accomplished pilot.
But one of the first questions people might ask,
is it 90 years old?
He was still flying. Well,
he, he actually was exceptionally skilled.
As I said, he had flown
a, a flight with his son yesterday.
And his son felt that he was OK.
And Bill came in this morning and wanted to go
flying solo,
you know, on his own and did.
And, of course, we'll probably never know the real 'cause,
you know, of the accident,
but but a very unfortunate loss.
Well, does it give you any comfort that he died
doing what he clearly loved?
Well, most aviators are going to tell you that he
died doing what he loved most.
And when you're 90 years old,
maybe that's kind of OK.
I'm not going to say it is or it isn't,
but
but, you know, in my conversations with him over many,
many, many years,
he was happy to be in that seat,
you know, flying that airplane that day.
It just had an unfortunate result.
Well, you said many, many years.
So tell us about your friendship and the man behind
these missions that we read in history books.
Well, of course, you know,
he went to the Naval Academy and then most people
don't know you can actually choose one of the other
services.
He chose the Air Force.
So became a very accomplished Air Force pilot,
applied for the astronaut program,
was accepted. And what's funny about
modern day deep space exploration is the mission he went
on is really Artemis too,
which we haven't flown yet.
So there isn't anything that
that Apollo didn't do OK already that we're going to
do in the future.
So you realize we had the fire in Apollo 1,
lost three of America's heroes.
Apollo 7, our own Wally Schirra right out of San
Diego commanded that flight,
but it didn't go to the moon.
And as soon as they said the new capsule is
good,
the next mission was to the moon.
So what they did is they set the course for
ultimately Apollo
9:10 and 11:00, where we walked on the moon for
the first time.
And ironically, he also set the standard for photography.
I mean, the photo behind me I think we still
have up on our big board is just extraordinary.
And that's historical as well.
Tell us about him snapping that photo and and the
aftermath of that.
Well, it in a weird sort of way,
it's the first chance we ever had a chance to
look at Earth.
Look the reverse direction. I happen to have a copy
from the original negative on the wall in my home,
autographed by Bill. It says to Jim and Andy,
my wife and with highest regards,
Bill Anders, Apollo 8. So,
you know, I looked at it as I left the
house tonight
as I headed your direction.
And it was just a such a great memory because
it's a treasure
that I could never replace and,
and so special. And once again,
you know, a chance to,
you know, we've looked at the moon,
we've looked at, but we never looked at us.
And it was a chance to look at Earth.
And he gave us that first chance.
What a perspective he must have had on life based
on having that experience.
His accomplishments are clear. Tell us what you will remember
about the man.
Well, I I had many conversations with him and he
was very dad like for me.
He'd call me, I'd call him.
We had little nicknames. We called each other.
He would call, which called me Slug,
which is my call sign.
I affectionately called him Sahib.
OK, I'm not sure where I ever got it,
but,
you know, he was he was he was very,
very visionary. He was a smart guy.
His advanced degrees were in
the nuclear sciences. You know,
he had been General Dynamics for a number of years.
So this was, well, as a matter of fact,
he was the ambassador to Norway.
So he had done a number of things over his
lifetime.
OK, That just kind of told you that this is
somebody you should listen to
because he called me up,
this is a few years ago now,
and said, Jim, I want to do kind of a
last event,
OK? And I'd like to do it,
Valerie and me on the stage with you as a
moderator.
I convinced him. Let's bring Greg up one of his
sons.
And it was so special just to be up on
that stage with the two of them who had been
together for so long.
And certainly, our prayers go out for Valerie,
you know, his longtime partner from really just past the
Naval Academy days.
And
he was kind of an old sage by that time.
You know, when you get to be 90,
you're trying to pass it on.
And of course, we've been doing this for a number
of years because we started out doing the Apollo 40th
anniversary at the museum.
And that day we had
we had Neil Armstrong, we had everybody
over at his house for dinner.
It was this sounds really corny,
but when I left that dinner seeing
17/18/19 of the world's astronauts and flight directors,
I called my parents just to just to tell him
where I was.
So I'm a little kid too among very special company
and I think his family and of course,
he is probably very proud that you drove all the
way from the East County to be here tonight to
talk about your dear friend.
So we extend our deepest condolences to you and also
our deep gratitude that you shared more about this product
of Grossmont High School.
Right. Thank you so much.
No, thank you. Jim Kidrick joining us tonight talking about
his longtime friend,
NASA hero William Anders, passing away today at the age
of 90.
Thank you.