In Remembrance of Konstantin (Kostek) G.S. Hausman:  5/19/1931- 8/31/2017

Kostek was born in Mannheim, Germany and immigrated with his parents and sister Ada to America after WWII as a part of “Operation Paperclip”.  This was a secret program of the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency, in which more than 1600 German scientist, engineers, and technicians were recruited and brought to the United States for government employment.

After arriving in America, he joined the Army and served in occupied Germany after the war.  Returning to America, he earned a degree in Physics from UC Riverside, and then worked as an engineer for North American Rockwell, Boeing, and McDonnell Douglas during the “space race”.

Kostek enjoyed astronomy, ham radio, flying sail planes, camping, and eclipse chasing.  He also enjoyed optical instrument design & construction.

As a member of SBARC, Kostek was best known as K6MNA.  He became involved with our group in 1996 because of his neighbor, our long time member Dick-W6ATT.  He impressed many of us with his stories about his life and social & science adventures.  In addition, he was also an experienced sail plane pilot and made numerous flights aloft.  One other passion he had was photography.  He was willing to show/share his memorable pictures with anyone. His zest for life had no boundaries, and shared this with all of us abundantly.

You are now free to sail your plane and catch that thermal.  May your next thermal take you to rise and climb above all of our life’s enjoyments, disappointments and show us the way!  Your involvement with our group has set many goals for us to achieve.

May you rest in peace good friend!  It’s been a pleasure having known you.

Joe Lanphen-WB6MYD