Here Is Where: Discovering America's Great Forgotten History

by Andrew Carroll

After Barbara Berka and I spend some time walking around Goddard’s old home, we drive several miles away to see the Robert Goddard Monument, which wasn’t unveiled until May 12, 2006. Barbara was instrumental in getting the Worcester memorial built, and the eight-paneled polygonal structure features a ten-foot-high stainless steel rocket standing side by side with the American flag. Barbara wrote the accompanying text on each panel, and Clark University and WPI helped with funding. I ask Barbara if NASA chipped in, too. “No,” she says. “I guess they did name the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland after him.” “They did that as part of a patent-infringement settlement!” Barbara says. “NASA had been using many of Goddard’s inventions without permission, so Esther had to sue. She won a million dollars and an agreement from NASA to name the Center for her husband. She ended up giving most of the money to the Smithsonian because they believed in him from the start.” Barbara, a retired science teacher who serendipitously got involved in the Goddard Memorial Association back in 1998, can’t understand why Goddard is so underappreciated considering his contributions to the space program and society at large. “When I speak at schools, I make a point of telling the students how much their lives are influenced by Goddard,” she says. “Along with his more than two hundred patents, you have all of the spin-offs from the space program.” These include everything from conveniences like s...