Some people view a community college education as a stepping stone to the world. For Dr. James F. Reilly II, it laid the foundation to go a little higher — into outer space.
As an astronaut for 13 years, Dr. Reilly logged more than 850 hours in space, including five spacewalks, over three shuttle missions that orbited the earth more than 500 times and totaled more than 14 million miles. Like all great voyages, though, his college education began with a single step.
After graduating from Dallas’ Lake Highlands High School in 1972, he spent a couple of years starting and developing a roofing company with his father. When he was accepted into the geoscience program at the University of Texas at Dallas, he found that he had to make some decisions about the direction of his college education.
“A number of the requisite courses were not available, or were in conflict with geoscience course offerings at UTD, which prompted me to investigate options at Richland College,” he says. “The great thing about Richland was having both day and night class options, which allowed me to take additional courses that I could not have acquired at UTD.
“For me, Richland College courses gave me the opportunity to complete my Bachelor of Science degree at UTD a semester early and participate in an expedition to Antarctica in the fall. I couldn’t have done it any other way.”
Which may be the retired astronaut’s modest way of saying that after earning a bachelor’s degree in geoscience from UTD — with transfer courses from Richland — he entered its geoscience graduate program and was selected to participate as a research scientist specializing in stable isotope geochronology in Marie Byrd Land, west Antarctica, where he received an Antarctic Service Medal in 1978.
In the next couple of decades, he also earned a doctoral degree in geoscience from UTD and worked as an oil and gas exploration geologist. In addition, he was actively involved in the application of new imaging technology for industrial applications in deep water engineering projects and biological research with the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution and the U.S. Navy.
Selected by NASA in December of 1994, Dr. Reilly initially was assigned to work technical issues for its computer support branch. Over the next several years, he served in the lead capacity for shuttle training, payloads and procedures operations, and crew exploration. He flew on shuttle missions in 1998, delivering more than 9,000 pounds of scientific equipment, logistical hardware and water to the Mir Space Station. And in 2001 and 2007, he participated in construction and repair missions to the International Space Station. He retired in May 2008.
What do you say about a guy who has logged time in deep water and outer space, won three Spaceflight medals and two NASA Distinguished Service medals, and is a seventh Honorary U.S. Marshal?
For Dr. James F. Reilly II, it all began here.