Michael J Penton, 67, of Huntsville, AL, died at home on May 9, 2024.
Graduating in 1974, he attended Butler High School, in Huntsville, AL, where he met the love of his life, Mary. It was 50 years ago this past April that Michael somehow convinced Mary to go out on a date with him. He then took her to see the Exorcist in hopes she would feel the need to cling tightly to him during the scarier parts. He, of course, underestimated her constitution and was likely the one who had to be held, but they’ll never tell.
Michael began his career in 1974 when he joined the US Air Force ahead of his inevitable draft that year. Ever the pragmatist, he chose the longest training program offered hoping to avoid an unpleasant deployment to Vietnam. He was successful and in the process set himself on the long and winding path to become a software and avionics guru. He worked as an avionics technician on aircraft until his Honorable Discharge in 1978.
Post military service, Michael worked as an engineer for Measurex servicing equipment in paper mills. He then started working for McDonnell Douglas in 1983 as an avionics engineer where he and his family spent seven years in England. He often described this time with his young family as some of the best years of his life. During this time he earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Maryland. They returned to the US in April of 1989 and settled in Huntsville, AL where both his parents and Mary’s mother had retired. At this time Michael began working on NASA programs which he would continue to do for the next 35 years. He wrote software for various projects including the Tethered Satellite System
(an unmitigated failure, but not because of his software) and the Microgravity Science Glovebox (a big hit and still in use today), spending ample time at Cape Canaveral supporting Space Shuttle launches often missing his youngest daughter’s birthday because apparently NASA likes to launch things in September.
Beginning in the mid-2000s his avionics knowledge was better spent applied first to the propulsion systems on the Ares launch vehicle being designed as a replacement for the Space Shuttle and then as an integrator as a part of the Constellation Program. During this time he transitioned to the Jacobs Engineering Services contract at Marshall Space Flight Center. He continued to work on this contract for the remainder of his career, most recently serving as the SLS Avionics & Software Lead Systems Engineer integrating the different elements of the new launch vehicle with the avionics components. He received many awards and recognition over the years for his hard work and dedication to these missions including the NASA Space Flight Awareness Silver Snoopy Award. Those who worked with him remember him as an intelligent, resolute, exacting engineer who accepted nothing less than superior execution in his own work and that of those he collaborated with.
Michael had a diverse set of interests culminating in leaving his family with hundreds of books, innumerable speakers, and an absurd number of computers. He enjoyed fast cars and motorcycles. More than that, he enjoyed going shopping for them, changing cars more often than most people wash their cars. Prior to realizing he was old and highly likely to kill his fool self on a crotch rocket, he spent occasional weekends riding his motorcycle all over the Southeast with a group of middle aged engineers looking for the best ribs.
He always enjoyed teaching his daughters such life lessons as writing computer code, how to find what you are looking for with Google, the proper way to wash and coat a new car, fixing drywall and other household repairs, as well as the right way to hold the flashlight so Dad doesn’t accidentally run the drill into his thumb. He was always available to listen to whatever was on their minds and then to offer some unsolicited advice regardless if he knew what he was talking about or not. He, of course, always believed he knew what he was talking about. He also left them both with a love for books and the habitual need to always keep their own books in alphabetical order.
Michael had the skills and resourcefulness to fix anything and was akin to the Energizer Bunny, as despite periodic health issues in his later years he just kept going. Sadly, however, it would appear as though even the Energizer Bunny runs out of juice eventually.
He is predeceased by his parents, RJ and Dorothy (Burns) Penton, and his mother- and father- in-law, John and Leslie (Lyons) Enright.
Left with decades of fond and colorful memories are his wife of 46 years, Mary (Enright) Penton; their two daughters, Rachel Penton (Deryck Dunn) and Ashley Penton; his brother-in-law, Jim (Melanie) Enright, who has the distinction of being the only extended family Michael actually liked; and his sadly confused, overly hyper, and exceedingly furry constant companion, a Golden Retriever named Winston. He is also survived by several brother- and sister-in-laws as well as numerous nieces and nephews, who remember him fondly, but who knows why. He will be deeply missed by some who knew him.
There will be no memorial service as Michael was vehemently against such things. Instead he asked to be cremated and “tossed off Pike’s Peak” in Colorado. When his daughter reported this fact to Michael’s supervisor he replied with fond remembrance, “That sounds like your old man!”
