Former NASA astronaut Col. Hank Hartsfield Jr. addressed the crowd Tuesday about the importance of education, what he considers to be the foundation on which his dreams were built and then realized.

The Accomplished Alumni Program, just over 1-year-old and instituted by Alumni Affairs, seeks to bring alumni back to UT who have a life story to share. Tuesday's event was co-sponsored by Career Services. Hartsfield's speech was laced with suggestions on how persistence and determination can overcome life's inevitable burdens.

"No life goes like you really want it to," Hartsfield began. "There are lessons to be learned."

As a boy Hartsfield drew inspiration from his father, a hard-working and honest man who let no obligation go unfulfilled. Both parents stressed the necessity of college, but Hartsfield's father died five days before his 1954 graduation from Auburn University with a bachelor's degree in physics.

When Hardsfield began college his favorite subjects were science and math, but Hartsfield was unsure about what to major in. As a freshman he took chemical engineering, but Hartsfield admitted that the lab was a disaster. A sophomore physics course was what swayed him to major in the field of physics.

"I figured I wouldn't hurt anybody that way," he said.

It was mandatory for the young men of the college to join ROTC, and he was placed in the Army's Core of Engineering program. By senior year the Air Force was in dire need of pilots, and Hartsfield was accepted as one.

In May 1961, the news of Alan Shepard being chosen as the first American man to go to space struck a chord in Hartsfield.

"Hank," he told himself, "that's what you wanna do." 

Six months after Test Pilot School he was nominated by the Air Force to join NASA, but in 1969 President Nixon canceled the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program that would have allowed Hartsfield his first out-of-this-world experience.

Don't get really despondent if you fail...You learned something. --Col. Hank Hartsfield, Jr.

"We all thought we were going to fly into space, and now we had nothing," he said.

Obtaining an advanced degree had always been high on his agenda, and in 1971 he received his Master's in Engineering & Science from the UT Space Institute.  

Hartsfield stressed the importance of diligence reminding the audience that if you work hard, you will succeed.  

"Don't get really despondent if you fail," he said. "You learned something."

He became a member of the astronaut support crew for Apollo 16 and was a pilot on Columbia in 1982.

"Lots of things happen that you don't expect," Hartsfield said, commenting on how his life had played out.

He entertained the crowd with a description of zero gravity, and how the fluids in your body move around and make your face swell up. He mentioned disorientation in the shuttle and how awkward it feels to return from zero gravity. In 1982, he and his crew members were worried about being greeted by former President Reagan and the first lady.

"What if we fall down," he said, "that'd be embarrassing." Then he laughingly added, "Nice pair of shoes, Mr. President."

Hartsfield interacted with the audience with a "Where Am I" quiz, where he displayed photographs taken from space. He also displayed a picture of himself in the shuttle, floating next to UT's big orange T that had been pasted on the capsule's wall.

In orbit, Hartsfield said the best place to look out is in the cockpit. One cloudless day he was looking down onto the Red Sea and Nile Delta and thought, "Gee, it looks just like a map!"

At the end of the speech he was presented with the UT Accomplished Alumni Award.