G2011-019 Meet Alberta Moran

Narration: Alberta Moran

Transcript:

For someone who learned to drive a Model T car, to someone who saw the space shuttle and saw a man landing on the moon, there's really no words to explain my time at Goddard. Hello, my name's Alberta Moran. I've worked at Goddard for forty plus years, both as an employee and a volunteer. I came to Washington D.C. during World War II. Worked for the Post Office Department as a GS-1 making $1,440 a year. Well, at the Post Office Department, I was detailed to the White House and then I was recruited to work at the Beltsville Space Center. It was only Beltsville Space Center for about two weeks and it became the Goddard Space Flight Center. I worked for the director for forty something years and as his Administrative Assistant; he insisted I also work for the 5,000 employees that was here. And I reviewed all the letters and packages that had to go out from Goddard. I believe one of the more interesting and proud moments of my career here at Goddard was being the International Coordinator. I got to meet President Nixon, and we had like, Mrs. Goddard was here very often. We even had Star Trek here, the whole crew, which was fun. And um... well let's see, I am still here for several reasons. The people are really great and in the early days of Goddard, we were a family and you know, you don't just divorce your family when you get older or retire. So, I came back to volunteer at the Visitor Center and I still do the Maryland Space Business Roundtable. Many times a student will ask me, well, can we work at NASA? I am not a scientist. You don't have to be a scientist, an engineer, a mathematician. The main thing is you have to decide what is in the future for you, what do you really want to do and then go after it.