I have been a Space Patrol fan since I was 6-1/2 in mid-1952 and consider myself to be the biggest of these. The passing of Ed Kemmer, who starred in, and, esthetically defined the show, left a bit of a void in me though I only knew him for 5 years and that not well. When my beloved uncle died in '63 I was 17 and did not have the capacity to really appreciate this kind of thing. In my adult life, the only thing that affected me in this manner is the passing of Ayn Rand in 1982. Both Miss Rand and Ed Kemmer were "heavy artillery". In the case of Miss Rand, it was more apparent. In Mr. Kemmer's case it was a quiet, understated kind of self-presentation to the world when you know that there is depth. This understanding on my part is the explanation of the fact that I was in the habit of calling him "Mr. Kemmer" rather than "the Commander" (which I would have if I had been told that it was all right to do so) and was appalled at the other "cadets" calling him "Ed". The temptation here is to try and use eloquence of speech to demonstrate the depth of effect. I am good with words and language so I know the words it seems I ought to say, but they sound totally insufficient and therefore pretentios and false, so I will avoid the poetics. Instead, I will simply narrate and dwcribe.

The most eloquent testimony to a person's work is its effect and influence upon reality and how it affects the way real things happend. such as the fact that the co-inventor of the CAT scan system was a fan of Space Patrol. In the matter of a personal remembrance, the value of a thing or person's actions is the real effect that the actions or person has on the speaker, in this case, me. For one thing, each of us is like a miniature universe; complete and self-contained, having all that is needed to make one a whole person with an infinite set of characteristics. By this I mean that each of us has the kind of self-sufficiency of substance to be a whole person, not being dependent on others for the existence of one's persona (we would consider a person without this characteristic to be a non-entity) and those who know me know that I take a back seat to nobody in that regard. So when one person has an effect on another, particularly a beneficial one, it is like two universes reaching across to each other and making a connection.

Of all the things I have written to express the way Space Patrol affected me. this one is the most complete and best. It is worth noting that Space Patrol did not start my interest in space, that was done a bit earlier by seeing the now-famous film clip of a recket launch with the camera pointing backward at the earth. This was sometime in the spring of 1952 although I do remember seeing some kind of space thing on television sometime early in 1950 but I really had no interest.

Those of you who know me know what I am like. A scinetifically-minded Ayn Randian. the first part came when I was 7 and the second, when I was 22. When I was 8 or 9, Albert Eisntein was the embodiment of Science and I said often how I would like to meet him. Through the late '60's and into the early '80's I often remarked how I would like to meet Miss Rand. Neither of these happened and I felt somewhat cheated.

The attraction of science was that it was the key to the world of Space Patrol. Miss Rand's philosophy, being Aristotelian in the twentieth century (the age of the motorcar, flight, advanced medicine and technology taken as a good thing), is pro-reason and therefore pro-mind and therefore pro-science; and pontedly so, with the addition of a moral/ethical component all wrapped up in a heroic view of Man. So that all fits me to the nineteenth decimal place. In fact, I accept nothing as true unless it passes the test of scinece and reason. When I learned enough about Miss Rand's philosophy to pass judgement, I said "Wow; Space Patrol come to life!". By that, I did not mean literally Buzz Corr, Cadet Happy, et al. What I meant was that this philosophy, being a mixture of the highest levels of rationality and an absolute and passionately heroic view of Mankind could only result in the world that Space Patrol was the fictional embodiment of. Beyond that, she "did" philosophy in the terms that I dig big time. casting her ideas in "light years" referring to interplanetary travel and astronauts in such a way that they naturally fit into the world of her ideas. An example of this is her essay, Apollo 11, to which launch she was invited. For me, this philosophy and Space Patrol are unbreakably linked. Had it not been for Space Patrol I would not have developed the appreciation of science, therefor of reason and the philosophy would mean nothing to me instead of being part of the central core of my being. As I wrote elsewhere; " I have two great passions in my life. Space Patrol... and Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand. One was a beacon from a bright and interesting future, the other, the means to get there".What made Ayn Rand important was the significant contributions she made to my explicit, conscious philosophy, how I express myself and absolute conviction of what I hold to be true, right, just and good. Of the Objectivist philosophy said, in 1968, "This will power Man to the Stars"-and I still stand by it today after almost 40 years. Now it's simple. No Ed Kemmer, no Space Patrol. No Space Patrol for me to latch onto, No value to me of Randian Pholosophy. The result is: No "Laser" to be writing this as clearly and concisely as it is. So both physically (chronologically) and spiritually (psychologically), The root of this is Ed Kemmer, not just that he portrayed Buzz Corry, But how he portrayed and therefore gave life to, Buzz Corry

Miss Rand also did some other work that relates to this. She loved the quote from Aristotole "Fiction is more important than history: History tell us how things were. Fiction tells us how things might and ought to be." When I read that, what came to mind was Space Patrol and the world that it embodied. In my estimation, having advanced trainin in Psychology, Miss Rand's greatest work was in her ideas on sense of life and are found in The Romantic Manifest and how it connects with philosophy. She observed "A sense of life is pre-conceptual, emotionally integrated equivalent of philosophy; particularlly Metaphysics [the way the world works]" and "A child is guided primarily by his sense of life"; To which I said "Ah-ha; That explains it". The image that it brought to mind was my first encounter with Space Patrol and the way I felt; i.e. blown away! That too, goes back to Ed Kemmer. To an 8 year old there is a certain je ne sais quoi about Buzz Corry that inclueded the Romanticism of the later-to-be Han Solo with the "social legitimacy" of being a high government official and a very intelligent guy. I 1953, who wouldn't like to grow up to be like Buzz and any intelligent parents would have known that they had a powerful ally. You didn't have to be a bad guy to live in the fast (space)lane.

Reading the obituary of Mr. Kemmer, I was struck by this item:

As for his starring role, Kemmer told the Columbus Dispatch in 1994: "I played it as straight as I could. You don't play down to children. A lot of shows make that mistake. Kids see through that right away." [emphasis added].