Reply #21: One degree on a few dead ones and some lives ones.

[kentauros]

Live ones:
Richard Garriot, though I wouldn't call him more than an acquaintance from high school.
Apollo Astronaut Rusty Schweickart (in Boy Scouts with sons and friends in school)
Skylab 3 Astronaut Dr. Owen Kay Garriott (through his son, obviously)

Never met the Aldrins, though they lived behind us, nor the Beans and they lived around the block from us.

The dead ones would be:
Paul Newman (knew his daughter Melissa in 1st grade and met him at home in Westport.)
Apollo Astronaut James Irwin (in Boy Scouts with his sons and talked to him personally sometimes)


Yes, I grew up in a little neighborhood directly across from NASA-JSC during the Apollo, Skylab and Shuttle years :D