John Patrick Heaman (per birth certificate William John Gillean Heaman) died Sunday, December 5th. He was born May 19th, 1932 in Cairo, IL to the late Catherine Heaman (nee Duggan) and John “Jack” Gillean Heaman.
John’s parents met in college at the University of Western Ontario. John grew up around his mother’s family in Illinois with many trips to Canada to visit his paternal grandparents and their relatives. Cairo, IL sits at the busy junction of the mighty Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, and John and friends spent much of their time in and on the waters there swimming, fishing, boating, hunting and well…whatnot. John excelled at math and science and was encouraged by his mother, uncle, and grandparents to apply to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he enrolled and studied physics. He transferred to Southern Illinois University to finish his bachelor’s degree followed by a master’s degree in physics before draft obligations sent him to Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri in the summer of 1955, followed by a science and professional (S&P) billet at the 9330th Technical Service Unit Company A at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, AL.
He had no inkling about the type of work the Army was doing there in conjunction with missile scientists that came over from Germany after WWII. He arrived in September, 1955 and soon joined the Ordnance Missile Lab under the Army Ballistic Missile Agency headed by Werner von Braun. John was discharged from the Army in 1957 and switched to civilian status in the same employment. NASA was formed in 1958 and absorbed John’s lab, and the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) was formed in 1960 with von Braun as director. John retired from NASA in 1997, after a full 40 years of civilian service. During John’s long career with NASA he worked under Werner Dahm (who along with von Braun came over via Operation Paperclip), who eventually became NASA’s Chief Aerodynamicist. John’s one liner title for his occupation was “supersonic fluid dynamicist”. John’s early work included rocket instrumentation design and the design & build of a new Mach 5 wind tunnel completed in 1960 at MSFC. This wind tunnel facility at Building 4732 proved very versatile and key for many projects involving the design, redesign and troubleshooting of hypersonic and trans-sonic fluid dynamics for many NASA projects. John’s design and problem-solving group included physicists, electrical engineers, mathematicians, technicians, fabricators, and budding computer scientists. “Technology” was very different then, with slide rules, pencil & paper, vacuum tubes, magnetic tape, and computer punch cards being the tools of the trade. Their computational fluid dynamics eventually transitioned from manual calculations to using large computers. John’s group also traveled for wind tunnel tests at Arnold AFB, Langley Research Center, and Ames Research Center. John’s group was one of the first to transmit digital information over phone lines with the help of ARPA during wind tunnel tests at Ames Research Center in 1976. John was on the investigation teams for the Columbia and Challenger disasters, and he helped the NTSB with the TWA flight 800 disaster investigation.
John’s pride and joy was his family. He met Doris Jean Rabenort at Southern Illinois University. She completed her nursing degree at Deaconess in St. Louis, and they married in 1959. They had their first two children, Kim and Denise, while living at Ishler trailer park on South Memorial Parkway. In 1963 they moved to their “house with a view” on a large lot with dozens of large cedar trees in south Huntsville. There they had a third child, Allen. They were very blessed with the surrounding neighborhood families and wooded areas.
The abundance of children kept things lively, adventurous and story-filled. They also loved the outdoors, and water activities especially. They fished, camped, swam, hiked, and water skied in the waterways of the Tennessee River. Eventually a house on the Honeycomb Creek branch of Guntersville Lake was the basis for a wealth of fun and great memories for the family, grandchildren, and everyone’s friends. Summers were chances for epic family road trips for camping in the Rocky Mountains, the Great Lakes, and Canada. Later John and Doris ventured abroad to Europe several times, and also to Australia and New Zealand. John and Doris had a variety of community interests. Along with three other families they were the charter members that started the United Church of Christ in Huntsville in 1960, where they supported the church and membership in various roles. Lily Flagg Swim and Tennis Club was the family’s summer hangout, and John ran the start-up and maintenance there for over 10 years. He also organized and ran cotton candy and snow cone sales at the MSFC Summer Family Picnic. He enjoyed being a part of a local computer club. John had two special groups that met regularly for meals – one was former co-workers the other were neighborhood men.
John’s wife Doris died tragically early of cancer in 2005. John is survived by his three children and six grandchildren: daughter, Kim Ward along with her husband Tim, and their son, Jake Ward and daughter, Amelia Chambliss with her husband, Casey Chambliss; daughter, Denise Calvert along with her daughter, Julia and son, Spencer; son Allen Heaman along with his wife, Allison and their daughters, Lili and Marley.
A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday December 12th at the United Church of Huntsville at 7906 Whitesburg Drive. Social distancing practices and masks will be provided.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to the charity of your choice or make donations to the Dr. Doris J. Heaman Memorial Endowed Scholarship for UAH nursing students that John set up in memory of his wife Doris, a UAH College of Nursing Instructor and Associate Professor of Nursing. By check: Please make your check payable to UAH Foundation with a memo of “Heaman scholarship” and mail to: UAH Office of Development, Shelbie King Hall, Third Floor, 301 Sparkman Drive, Huntsville, AL 35899. By credit card: Please visit uah.edu/giving/donate, Select Designation: Other, Specific Designation: Heaman scholarship, OR call 256.824.GIVE.
