High Flight

By John Gillespie Magee Jr.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

of sun-split clouds,-and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of-wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,

I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air ....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle flew-

And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Philip Richard (Dick) Turner was born Sunday, October 20, 1946 in Palestine, Texas to Philip and Sylvia Turner. He left this Earth on Friday, September 12, 2025, continuing his upward flight.

Once Dick moved beyond a "Roy Roger fascination" of his younger Texas years, his curiosity and intellect drew him to Science and Math. He completed his studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1968, followed by a year at the University of Michigan as he began his Air Force career.

Dick's journey then moved him to the SAC base in Omaha, NE, and later to an Air Station in Los Angeles. He left the Air Force to continue his career in Aerospace in California at TRW and then eventually to work and retire from JPL in 2006. In March, 1995, his Good Wife Helen joined him in California and into the after-work ventures in Albuquerque, N.M.

From hiking and jogging to sky diving to his love of Scuba diving, he moved through this world exercising his body and his mind. And along the way he found a camera to be a very good companion to record his sights below the water as well as above. He was A True Individual who had the mind to explain Quantum Physics to a Junior High sister and to later point out to her the beauty of a poem such as High Flight.

He is survived by his siter, DeEtte Andrews of Oklahoma City and 2 Exceptional kitties, Austin and Bear, of the home.

Take some deep breaths .....and Enjoy the World.... Take Care.