Worden Beams Up
A Space Maverick Quietly Departs NASA, editorial, Space News
“Outspoken, with a palpable disdain for management bureaucracy, Mr. Worden was an enthusiastic advocate of small satellites and other innovations like single-stage-to-orbit rocket technology during a 29-year career in the U.S. Air Force. More hawkish than most dared to be on the touchy subject of space warfare, Mr. Worden in 1993 led Clementine, a low-cost robotic mission to the moon that he later characterized as a “sneaky space weapon test.” Somewhat counterintuitively given his warrior reputation, Mr. Worden also was recognized as a bona fide intellectual, holder of a doctorate in astronomy and author or co-author of more than 150 scientific and technical papers including one in which he branded NASA a “self-licking ice cream cone.”
Keith’s note: Odd that Space News overtly mentions Pete Worden’s doctorate and then refer to him as “Mr.” a dozen times. When I inquired Space News told me that no one is called “Dr.” in their publication. Oh well. Otherwise, its a nice overview of Dr. Worden’s tenure at NASA.
Ames Has A Stargate, earlier post
I forget, did Charlie force Pete out?
No. Pete has more things he wants to do in life.
The “Self Licking Ice Cream Cone” paper can be found at
http://articles.adsabs.harv…
On Self-Licking Ice Cream Cones
Worden, S. P.
Cool stars, stellar systems, and the sun, Proceedings of the 7th Cambridge Workshop, ASP Conference Series (ASP: San Francisco), vol. 26, p. 599.
Published in 1992, he concludes that the Hubble Space Telescope “cannot be fixed” and should be shut off so we can start over. History has proven at least that part of his premise to be wrong.
If not Dr. Worden, what about Gen. Worden?
Both are appropriate.
I met General Abrahamson once in meeting, and we still called him General Abrahamson despite the fact that he was no longer in the military. It was no different than calling a PhD a “doctor,” and by that I mean that it was entirely appropriate.
This happens in my paper, too (I write a newspaper column). It’s a combination of policy and the AP Stylebook.
Worden had an excellent reputation as both a scientist and manager.
Anyone mentioned as his replacement yet?
Yeah, I’m not a big fan of different titles like Dr. in normal everyday language either. Do doctorate holders think they are different or better than me in some way because they chose a different academic career? Hopefully not, that would be annoying.
It’s one thing if you’re the prick who corrects the banker or letter carrier, (“It’s not Mr. Soandso, it’s *Dr.* Soandso”), but the SpaceNews article was a summary of a technical expert’s 30 year career; it seems like an appropriate time to use his title.
Every single time I have heard him introduced at NASA it was as “Dr. Worden”.
By brother is a minister and people call him Rev. Cowing. When I speak to a military person I use their rank. When I talk to a government official I use their title if they have one. Its common courtesy and does not imply superiority – unless someone is feeling inferior, I suppose.
Well your military rank example surely does imply superiority as it’s the whole reason behind the titles. I think doctor does too, if only because it denotes the person passed a certain level of education, but in practice there’s probably a little bit more implied than that.
Honestly this hasn’t really bothered me much, but it just seems to have a hint of unfairness to it. Imagine if we had titles attached to our names based on something else rather than education level – maybe annual income, or property owned, or number of friends on social media, lol. Maybe some other level of achievement? Would those be ok?
Calling a PhD a doctor is no different than calling an MD a doctor. If a PhD wants to be called a doctor or if someone calls a PhD a doctor, it no way bothers me since they are in fact doctors. A PhD has earned, by dint of all the work that goes into becoming a PhD, the right to be called “doctor.”
True, that’s how it works. But what have all the other people “earned”? Nothing? Maybe they worked hard at something else, but it didn’t include getting a PhD. The doctor has earned a new title, and additional letters after their name to be used for the rest of their lives, but the rest of us haven’t earned anything? It is superficial since it’s just a name, but a name is a big part of a person’s identity of course.
A newly minted PhD deserves a “title” but someone who has worked 20 or 30 years in a technical specialty doesn’t? I had a PhD ask me for help converting from English units to SI units!
The whole PhD thing is a Prussian import that really didn’t seem to jibe with the American idea of a society without titles. I’m for using Doctor only when a medical professional needs to identify him or herself as someone who could provide assistance in a medical emergency.
No disrespect to the man: His accomplishments and contributions speak for themselves and may he rest in peace. Proper social protocol reserves the prefix “Dr.” for physicians. Nevertheless, the sitting Vice President’s wife –and the cognoscenti surrounding her, apparently never received that training. The woman’s middle name is literally (sic) Jill.
I’m not familiar with that social protocol. Apparently I’ve been doing it wrong for years. I have coworkers (engineers) with PhDs and I’ve always referred to them as doctor. They’ve never corrected me.
You and me both. I either use titles for everyone I write about or I use none at all. In the academic, scientific, medical, and engineering communities I have worked in for 40 years “Dr.” is a title that is used and means something. Oh well. I control my own style book.