Cumberland County is a beautiful, peaceful retreat that we native Upper Cumberlanders (or is it Cumberlandites?) and our ancestors have enjoyed for generations.
Others have discovered it through visits, friends and simply driving through.
It’s what makes it an ideal retirement destination for both regular folks and those who have been on the fringes or at the center of history.
Among them are the late Earl Lloyd, the first African American to play in the NBA.
And who could forget Isabel Hemingway, cousin of Ernest, who dedicated her life to missionary work around the world before moving to Uplands Retirement Village in 1978? She spent the remainder of her life there, passing away in 2009 at age 101.
But too often, we at the Chronicle read an obituary and realize too late that we’ve had a star in our midst.
You may have sat close to Margaret Thatcher’s legal secretary on a night out to dinner prior to 2022. That’s the year Doreen Banks passed away — and the year we found out about her as her obituary crossed our desk.
You’ve also likely been in the orbit of more than one NASA retiree. The late Jim Kukowski, labeled a “NASA chronicler” on the agency’s website, was a key source for all space-related matters, including the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. He passed away a little more than a year later.
Which brings us to his colleague, Ed Smylie.
Mr. Smylie was brought to my attention a little over two weeks ago, when a reader reached out about his obituary.
The obituary never appeared in the Chronicle, because we only run them at the family’s request. I thought that was what Gary Douglass was inquiring about.
Mr. Douglass gently and kindly explained why Mr. Smylie, living unassuming in Cumberland County’s midst until his passing April 21 at age 95, is A Huge Deal.
“Houston, we have a problem,” is in all of our lexicons from the Apollo 13 flight in 1970.
Ed Smylie was one of the guys on the ground to whom that statement was directed.
This sweet-faced grandfatherly engineer looking back at me from his online obituary photo and his team saved the crew of three astronauts whose lives were in peril. An exploding oxygen tank aboard the spacecraft and forced the crew into a lunar module they were supposed to land on the moon.
The module was unable to filter the carbon dioxide the men expelled as they breathed. Death was inevitable.
Mr. Smylie, the engineer in charge of NASA’s life support systems, rushed into action. It was on him and his team to devise a way to adapt the spacecraft’s filters to use in the lunar module using, in Mr. Douglass’s words, “a mish mash of odd parts” that included duct tape, cardboard and plastic bags. Per The New York Times, the transmission sent to the astronauts was as follows:
We want you to take the tape and cut out two pieces about three feet long, or a good arm’s length. What we want you to do with them is to make two belts around the side of the canister, one belt near the top and one belt near the bottom, with the sticky side out; wrap it around, sticky side out, as tight as possible. It’ll probably take both of you to get it nice and snug. Over.
Needless to say, it worked, and the crew was saved.
Years later, the man Time Magazine called “an improvisational genius” looked upon it with modesty and gave a remark befitting a Southern gentleman.
“If you’re a Southern boy, if it moves and it’s not supposed to, you use duct tape,” The New York Times reported Mr. Smylie saying. “A mechanical engineering sophomore could have come up with it.”
From my readings, those types of self-effacing comments were typical — even when he and teammate James Correale were singled out by President Nixon days later.
Mr. Smylie eventually retired from NASA. From there, his family reports in his obituary that he filled his days the same way many of you do — tending his lawn, spending time on the lake and golf course, hiking in Tennessee’s state parks, where he was thrilled to seek out waterfalls.
He also enjoyed time with his family, including his wife, Carolyn, who passed away last year; his and Carolyn’s children; and a bunch of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
“Although he is known for his historic accomplishments with NASA, his family knew him as a loving father and grandfather who will be dearly missed,” the family wrote in his obituary.
“Ad Astra, Ed Smylie. The world has lost someone special.”
Indeed it has.
Rest well, Mr. Smylie. My condolences to the family and all who knew him. It sounds like you had someone truly exceptional in your life.
As did we all in Cumberland County — even if the majority of us were unaware of it.
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Cheryl Duncan is editor of the Crossville Chronicle. She may be reached at cduncan@crossville-chronicle.com or 931-484-5145.