R.A. Long grad brings rocket science to WHS

The rare species of Rocket Scientist was sighted in Cathlamet this week.

Paul Laufman, graduate of RA Long High School in Longview in 1956, a Lower Columbia College and Washington State University alum, gave a presentation to middle school and high school students, and proved that hard work and a dream could turn a so-called “average student” into the right stuff.

His father’s work brought him to Cathlamet frequently as a youth.

“I spent a lot of time in Cathlamet. Does the name Gollersrud or Goodfellow ring a bell with any of you?” Laufman asked. “They were classmates of mine at LCC. In this area, every city and every town is home, that is the way I feel about Cathlamet.”

Laufman insists that he was an average student.

“I did enjoy studying; it was just hard," he said. "So I had to study hard. But I had a goal. I had two passions as a child. One was baseball. The other one was this new field called rockets.”

His older brother was playing baseball for the Chicago Cubs when Laufman received his own offer to join the club. He told them it would have to wait.

“I’ll play for you after I’ve finished my baseball career at Washington State,” he said. Laufman admitted that baseball frequently got in the way of girlfriends.

A book about the building of the Grand Coulee Dam drew him to the field of engineering. Eventually, his fascination with engineering would outpace his interest in baseball.

“I got over to Washington State and as I said, I was intrigued with this world of rockets," he said. "I found out I couldn’t get out of afternoon labs to (baseball) practice and be an engineer. I had to make a decision. What I discovered…a great discovery in my life, engineers do not have to hit curve balls.”

In 1957, Sputnik, the first artificial satellite was launched by the Soviet Union, and Laufman was just finishing up at LCC. As has often been reported, the US was behind in space exploration. Laufman was studying his “hero”, von Braun and his space station, which looks much like a wheel. According to Laufman, the von Braun model still remains the most ideal.

This space station has not been built because it would have to be completed before it could be populated, and the expense is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. So for now, space stations are built as modules.

Because the US had fallen behind, there was a great need for engineers.

“I went to work for a lot of companies," he said. "You follow contracts. I did well. When I first got out of college, it was hard for me to understand which end the fire comes out of a rocket. I didn’t know a lot about them.

"But they needed engineers so badly they gave me a very responsible job at the time. I didn’t really know how responsible it was until later in life, when I looked back and said, you shouldn’t give a job like that to a young kid. So I worked on things called ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles).

"One of the sad realities of life is that technology advances the fastest in our world when it has a military application. It’s just something that is part of reality. “

Laufman got to do a lot of research and development work. One boss informed him that his job was to blow things up. He was twenty two.

“I can do that, as long as I don’t have to put them back together,” said Laufman.

His work in trying to find the “maximum payload you can get into orbit with a given size booster” led to 14 patent disclosures.

“The reason they are called patent disclosures is because we were under contract to Lockheed and the Air Force. The Air Force owns all the patents you develop on their funding. The government doesn’t patent anything, they don’t have to.”

He worked on advanced composites and then finally found himself working in manned space launch. His work was responsible for creating the motor that lifts the crew capsule away in case something goes wrong during launch.

“It had the capacity to save lives, he said. “Fortunately, they’ve never needed it.”

In 1995 he co-founded UPC, United Paradyne Corporation, “makers of rocket fuels and life-support systems used in government space launches.”

In 2003, he was honored at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, by being added to their Wall of Honor.

His advice to students: “Find your passion and strive to excel. Integrity is paramount, maintain your humility and have a good attitude.”