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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan awarded Idaho’s first Medal of Achievement

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter bestows the first Idaho Medal of Achievement on teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan (AP / Otto Kitsinger)
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter bestows the first Idaho Medal of Achievement on teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan (AP / Otto Kitsinger)

Following his State of the State address, Gov. Butch Otter has named the first recipient of the Idaho Medal of Achivement, the state’s highest civilian honor: Barbara Morgan, the teacher and astronaut from McCall who now teaches at Boise State University. “By every measure, the first recipient of the Idaho Medal of achievement is an inspirational leader,” Otter said.

After he placed around her neck a medal made of 20 ounces of pure silver donated by Hecla Mining, Morgan said, “Thank you, Idaho. … Wow. … Our lives are the sum of all the people who have helped us, so from the bottom of my heart, just thank you, so much.”

Then, she asked, “Would you like to hear one little space story?” To enthusiastic murmurs of assent from the senators and representatives assembled in the House chamber, she shared the story of how during one of her orbits, she took a break to float over to the windows and look out. “It’s the best thing you can do,” she said. Below, across the Indian Ocean, she saw “about a couple dozen isolated thunderstorms, just a little here and there across the entire Indian Ocean.” Then, just a few moments later, “because you’re traveling at 5 miles per second,” she was crossing over the coast of Africa and it was nighttime already, pitch black, “until one of those isolated thunderheads let loose a bolt of lightining.” Then, that caused another to do the same, and “all across the Indian Ocean it was flash flash flash, pop pop pop, and then it got dark, pitch dark again,” she said.

“I realized there is no such thing as isolated thunderstorms,” Morgan told lawmakers. “Back here in Idaho, it is absolutely the same, we are all connected … and flash flash flash, pop pop pop, we teach our children and all of their dreams come alive.”

“I want to thank you, legislators, for all the good hard work that you do and especially for education,” Morgan said. “Thank you for this tremendous honor. I deeply, deeply appreciate it.”



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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