William George Kloezeman

LIFE Membership
Board of Directors

I worked at the South Pasadena Plunge in Orange Grove Park and for the Rexall drug store at El Centro and Fair Oaks during the time I was in high school and going to Pasadena City College. I was an Aerospace Engineer for CalTech/NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in summer of 1965 and from June 1966 until retirement in 2003. I worked on the management, design, fabrication, assembly and test of the spacecraft and flight hardware for the Nimbus E/F/G weather monitoring microwave radiometers,Tiros weather monitoring spacecraft, Mariner 1969 and 1971 Mars and Mariner 10 Mercury spacecraft, Surveyor Moon landers and Viking Mars landers, Voyager spacecraft that flew to Jupiter/Saturn/Uranus/Neptune, Magellan spacecraft that flew to Venus, Galileo Jupiter Orbiter spacecraft, Cassini Saturn Orbiter spacecraft, Magnetometer Instruments that flew on Pioneer F and G and the Ulysses Solar Polar spacecraft, Seasat/Topex/Jason spacecraft that monitor ocean conditions, Quikscat/ADEOS spacecraft that monitor sea winds,Cloudsat spacecraft that monitors cloud conditions, Microwave Limb Sounder Instrument that determines the constituents in the earth's atmosphere from earth orbit, Shuttle Imaging Radar and Shuttle Radar Topography Instruments, Internal Discharge Instrument for the Air Force CRESS spacecraft, Stardust spacecraft, Wide Field Planetary Camera Instrument for the Hubble Space Telescope, several Apollo moonlanding instruments, and a project that developed techniques that increase clarity of planetary pictures and that also increases resolution of medical body scans.

I have always lived in South Pasadena. However,I have travelled to: England,Austria,Germany,France,Mexico,Canada, Spain,Italy,Holland,Switzerland,Norway,Sweden,Finland,Denmark,Australia,Japan and South Africa. I have been in all 50 states. I have flown over 4 million miles.

My father's family moved into South Pasadena in the early 1900's. My father spent almost his entire life in South Pasadena and worked for South Pasadena for 47 years. My mother moved into South Pasadena when they got married in 1934. I have always lived in South Pasadena except for the two years I was away at the University of Utah.

Virginia(1966 Sister),Karen(1994 Daughter),William(1997 Son),Kristen(2004 Daughter),Kimberly(2009 Daughter)

Many

Tuesburg(Kindergarten),Flagg(First Grade),Cowan(Sixth Grade) at Lincoln;Cooney(Science),Foster(Math),Oliver(English/Social Studies),Smith(Print Shop),Coach Edwards at the Junior High;Steele and Carpenter(Math),Gruhn(Science),Penn(Mechanical Drafting),Hartsough(Counselor),Coach Green(American History) at the High School. Many memories of going to the Rialto( cost$.25)and then Fosselmans,the Plunge in Orange Grove Park, going to the Arroyo and the pond and the driving range and the miniature golf course, the bowling alley with the pool room on Fair Oaks, Elephant Hill, soaping the windows on Mission near Meridian, hunting snakes and rabbits in the Monterey Hills, climbing to the top of the Bilicke Water Tower(what a view)and cruising Colorado Street from Hastings Drive-In to Bobs Big Boy to Henrys over the old Colorado Street Bridge. I spent a lot of time in Dolly's Records, Taco Treat and Twohey's Drive-In. I have been on the high school Booster Club and the Alumni Association Directors Boards for many years. Also,I have been on the School Districts High School Task Force, the High School Block Schedule Committee and the High School Accreditation Board. I have gone on about a dozen grad nights including my own, several in the sixties as a date with a graduating senior and about eight as a chaperone during the years my kids were at the high school.

National Rifle Association , Boy Scouts of America ( Eagle Scout , Silver Explorer and Order of the Arrow ).

AA in Engineering from Pasadena City College in 1963. BS in Mechanical/Nuclear Engineering with Honors from University of Utah in 1966. MS in Engineering Systems Management from University of Southern California in 1974. Member of American Society of Mechanical Engineers ,American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Pi Tau Sigma Honor Society.

SPHS Booster Club Director. SPHS Alumni Association President. Eagle Scout Chairman for South Pasadena Boy Scout Troop 516. Numerous positions in South Pasadena Ward of the LDS (Mormon) Church over the years. Overseeing the houses in South Pasadena we have acquired over the years. Trying to keep up with the endless honey do's.

Glenn Miller, Rockabilly Music, Doo Wop Music, Nate King Cole, Buddy Holly, The Doors, Beach Boys, Righteous Brothers, George Harrison, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Kingston Trio, Roy Orbison, Tommy James and the Shondells, The Hollies, The Turtles, The Buckinghams, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, The Byrds, Bee Gees, The Spinners, CCR, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Dave Clark 5, Bobby Fuller 4. I was going to go to Woodstock in 1969 but I had to go to a design review for work that was in England at the same time as Woodstock.

BOOKS:Tom Clancy-Jack Ryan Series ;James Clavell-Shogun and Noble House ;Ian Fleming-The original James Bond books written by Ian Fleming only ;John Wooden books. MOVIES:American Graffiti ;Fast Times at Ridgemont High ;Dr. Strangelove ;Purgatory ;Final Countdown ;Donovan's Reef ;Early Star Wars ;Space Cowboys ;Independence Day ;Apollo 13 ;Them ;Tremors ;Jurassic Park ;Joe Dirt ;The Bucket List. TV SHOWS:Happy Days ;Wonder Years ;Early American Bandstand ;Original Star Trek ;Hee Haw ;Laugh In ;Alf ;Vegas ;Hunter ;Rockford Files ;Magnum PI ;Sha Na Na ;Starsky and Hutch ;77 Sunset Strip. MAGAZINES/NEWSPAPERS:Aviation Week and Space Technology ;American Rifleman ;American Hunter ;Business Week ;Wall Street Journal.

See Pastimes and Hobbies plus spend as much time as possible at the Newport condo and walking to Crystal Cove and the Beachcomber Cafe.

I graduated from college in June 1966 with a BS in Mechanical/Nuclear Engineering and started as an engineer at CalTech/NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory where I worked on planetary and earth atmospheric monitoring spacecraft and the Apollo moon landing. The goal of JPL was not to go where a path might lead but to go instead to where there is no path and leave a trail. I decided to stay in South Pasadena which is close to JPL and where I grew up and which is a small pond of sanity in the sea of the Los Angeles insanity. I did a lot of traveling for work and backpacking,fishing and bowhunting in the Eastern Sierras. I also spent a lot of time overnighting at Huntington State Beach and watching all the singing groups that were around in the late 60's at the Ice House in Pasadena,the Hollywood Bowl,the Troubadour on Santa Monica Blvd,the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival,all the beach concerts and at the clubs on Sunset Blvd. The Beach Boys and the Doors where the best. I had a friend at JPL who was very active in the stock market and always had the latest information and by late 1969 I was lucky enough to have about $300,000. I got married in July 1972 and since then things have been busy with many things: Four kids; school graduations (Grade,Junior High,High and College);school Back to School Nights and Open Houses;school talent shows and band concerts;cheerleading camps;AYSO soccer practices and games;Y basketball practices and games;Father and Son Campouts and Boy Scout summer camps (I was even a scoutmaster at one time);helping more than 100 kids to get their Eagle Scout Award;chaperone at church girls camps (Try being the only male at a camp with about 70 teenage girls and 4-5 women for a week);being on the board of the high school and junior high school booster clubs for years;neighborhood block parties;New Years Eve parties at the house;city Fourth of July parade and fireworks;plus all birthdays and anniversaries and Halloweens and Christmases and Thanksgivings and Easters. VACATIONS have been to Palm Springs, Grand Canyon, Big Bear Lake, Yosemite, Catalina, Lake Powell Houseboats, Zion and Bryce National Parks, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach. Currently, we spend time monitoring and overseeing the seven houses that we have acquired over the years in South Pasadena.