I walk for exercise and meet interesting people along the way. Les Hoffman was a key player in the development of the Atlas solid fuels rocket. Handled incorrectly rockets can become bombs. Les had the intelligence and focus to do the lab work necessary to make the manufacturing process possible. He was also a specialist in boxwoods and a very handy craftsman. When he was failing, I asked him to give me a tool remember him with. He gave me a wooden billet with a round face on one end and a wedge edge on the other. Both faces were covered in brass. (Think squat wooden chisel.) The tool was used to pound sand into foundry molds. If anyone ever tells me to pound sand, I have the tool to do it!
wawachter 