Goodbye, Jack Horkheimer
[photo via AP]
Jack Horkheimer, beloved TV personality and executive director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium, has died, age 72. Countless legions of us grew up watching the gruff-voiced, wide-eyed astronomer hosting Star Gazer and Star Hustler on public television. Week after week, decade after decade, he’d walk in front of that green screen and excitedly tell us what we could expect to see in the evening sky. His enthusiasm was deeply infectious. He taught us all sorts of things about the universe, and he made us smile.
Farewell, farewell fellow star gazer. We’ll keep looking up.
August 22nd, 2010 at 9:48 am
Being born in Homestead and having family around the Metro-Dade area, I was more aware of Jack than most kids I went to school with in Kentucky. We need more guys like him, that make science and space cool and fresh to the average person.
Just an aside, I always loved the name of that planetarium, when I was a kid I thought maybe it was built to be some sort of future “space traffic control” with the words Space Transit in there.
August 22nd, 2010 at 11:14 am
Growing up in Miami, the Museum of Science and the Planetarium were right at the top of my favorite places to go. I’ve lost track of how many class field trips took us there as well. He’ll be missed.
“Stargazing is all about where you are
in time and space. The reason people get
out their telescopes and attend star parties
is because they are trying to peer out over
the horizon to find their place in the universe.
And if I can help them find that,
that’s all that matters.”
What a great quote.