Otto S. Weilert

Otto Sam Weilert was born on a farm in Ness County, Kansas to Otto Melchior and Edna Weilert on the 29th of May, 1934. Educated at St. Joe's Academy in Hays, he joined the Navy in May 1954, rapidly rising to the rank of Air Traffic Controlman First Class. He often proudly remarked that he was a ‘slick-sleeve first’ meaning he reached First Class Petty Officer within his four-year enlistment. While enlisted, he married Evelyn Agnes Paramore in December 1956. They had three boys: Otto Wesley, 1959, Matthew, 1961, Michael, 1964.Honorably discharged as a decorated Navy veteran in May 1958, he took a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Kansas, (Go Jayhawks!), in 1963, before moving to Pasadena, Texas to join NASA's Lunar Receiving Lab during the Mercury Redstone Project. Otto Weilert personally knew the original Mercury VII astronauts. https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_157.html  From NASA, he continued his aerospace career with a move to Tracor in 1968, then stints at ARIS and Austin Meter, before embarking on a second career in teaching at Bastrop Independent School District, in 1979, where he kept fit teaching boys PE and inspired generations of students with his love for science, technology, engineering, economics and math. He put his practical, farm-bred training to good use clearing acreage and building a 3-storey home where Evelyn's four children (including her husband) could have dart gun wars for hours every Christmas morning. In setting up a Boy Scout Camp on their property, Otto got certified to sign off 22 different merit badges. He took his sons and many other scouts to the Philmont, the New Mexico high adventure camp, where the stories seemed to grow with each retelling. He is survived by his wife Evelyn, his sons Otto Wesley of El Dorado, California, Matthew of Bastrop and grandson Stephen in Lima, Michael & wife Joanna of Georgetown and grandsons Justin, in Georgetown and Ryan in Austin.