He was also a Great American - I had the opportunity to work on his team when I was part of the Space Lift System upgrade at Vandenberg Air Force Base - I also had the opportunity to listen in on several of his company sponsered webinars - below is the pasted text from a company email I received today...

Dear CSC Colleagues,

It is with great sadness that I report the death of Dr. Ron Parise, a CSC employee who flew as a payload specialist onboard NASA's two shuttle missions dedicated to astronomy. Ron died on May 9 after a long illness. On behalf of all of us at CSC, I express our sympathy to Ron’s family and friends, and his colleagues at CSC and in the science community.

Ron’s family has established a scholarship in his memory at his alma mater, Youngstown State University. Memorial contributions may be made to

The Youngstown State University Foundation
Dr. Ronald A. Parise Scholarship Fund
One University Plaza,
Youngstown, Ohio 44555.
USA

Information available at www.ysu.edu.

Here are a few notes about Ron’s career and his contributions to science and CSC:

Ronald Anthony Parise received his bachelor of science in physics, with minors in mathematics, astronomy, and geology from the Youngstown State University in 1973. He earned masters and doctorate degrees in astronomy from the University of Florida, in 1977 and in 1979, respectively.

Prior to joining CSC, Ron worked on developing avionics requirements and performing failure analyses for NASA missions for Operations Research Inc. In addition to his accomplishments in space, Ron also engaged in a number of astronomical research projects utilizing data from ground-based observatories, the Copernicus satellite (OAO-3) and the International Ultraviolet Explorer, which resulted in several professional publications.

Ron joined CSC in 1980. He helped develop the flight software, electronic system design and mission plan for the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT), one of the instruments for NASA's ASTRO payload. In 1984, he was selected by NASA as a payload specialist to fly with the UIT on the STS-61E mission, scheduled for launch in March 1986.

His flight was postponed as a result of the January 1986 loss of space shuttle Challenger, so his actual first mission was as part of the STS-35 crew aboard Columbia in December 1990. NASA's first manned mission dedicated to studying astronomy, the nine-day STS-35 mission flew a package of three ultraviolet telescopes in the orbiter's payload bay. Parise, together with Jeffrey Hoffman and Sam Durrance, became the first three astronomers to operate telescopes in space, observing 135 targets including comet Levy, the planet Jupiter and the supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Parise flew a second time, as a member of the STS-67 crew accompanying the ASTRO payload in March 1995 on the shuttle Endeavour. Ron, again with Durrance, led the operation of the trio of ultraviolet telescopes, which was highlighted by the detection of primordial helium in intergalactic space. The discovery provided confirmation for a prediction of the Big Bang theory on the formation of the universe.

In total, Ron logged more than 614 hours and traveled 10.6 million miles in space.

After his second flight, Ron returned to duties at CSC, working at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland in the area of advanced communications planning for manned space missions. He received the prestigious CSC Award for Technical Excellence for the “Internet Spacecraft” project, which employed Internet Protocol to allow spacecraft with disparate operating systems and computer languages to intercommunicate.

A two-time recipient of the NASA Space Flight Medal, Ron once said he would have waited forever for a flight for what "must be the greatest adventure of all time."

"To leave our home world and look back at it from space is a most incredible experience," he said in 1998 in reply to the original Ask An Astronaut website.

Bye - Ron....

 

So sorry for the loss of a great American.

 

Man, Ron lived quite the life... my condolences.

 

That's Ron on the right