Edward Dwight, Jr. was born in 1933 in Kansas. His father was a baseball player for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro leagues. As a child, he was an example of why the concept of left brain/right brain is not valid. He was fascinated with flight and mechanically gifted. He was also artistically talented.
He experienced racial segregation firsthand hand becoming the first African-American male to graduate from his private high school. He won a scholarship to attend the Kansas City Art Institute, but his father thought that it was no way to earn a living. He chose to study aerospace engineering instead and earned an associate degree in 1953.
After getting his degree, he joined the Air Force and qualified to be a pilot. While he was in training to become a test pilot, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering.
As the U.S. was gearing up to enter the space race, NASA was preparing our first astronauts. Most of the candidates were test pilots like Ed. President Kennedy especially wanted an African-American astronaut to help defuse some of the country’s racial issues. When Ed was invited to attend a program for the astronaut candidate pool, his father tried to discourage him, while his mother was more encouraging.
The program was not receptive to “Kennedy’s Boy”. The fame of being considered also stirred jealousy. When the President was assassinated, it became clear that Ed would not be selected as one of the nation’s astronauts.
Ed left the program and settled in Denver where he worked for IBM as a computer systems engineer. It was his long-term love of art that became his passion. He began sculpting with an emphasis on African-American heroes. You can see one of his sculptures below:
Now at age 90, Ed finally saw the fulfillment of his original career hope. On May 19, 2024, he became the oldest person to go into space. He traveled on a Blue Origin rocket owned by Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos.
Ed Dwight has lived a life of purpose even though he confronted many obstacles along the way. He never gave up hope, and he didn’t dwell on grievances. He was told he couldn’t make a career out of art, but he proved that wrong. He was discouraged from being an astronaut but looking back we now realize that he was fully qualified. Joy in living and hope are perhaps the secrets to a long fulfilling life.
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“I’ve pulled more G’s than any person on Earth. I’ve been high enough to see the curvature of the Earth. … I’ve been doing things like that most of my life.” – Edward Dwight (in response to concerns for a person 90 years old going into space.)