Longtime Decatur resident Jim Odom, key engineer in America’s area program, dies

Sep. 9—Jim Odom, a longtime Decatur resident who made main contributions to a number of the nation’s largest area accomplishments, died Sunday evening.

Odom, 91, died after a four-week keep at Decatur Morgan Hospital, mentioned First Baptist Church of Decatur pastor Blake Kersey on Monday.

“His death is a loss to our community and our church,” Kersey mentioned.

Odom’s 40-year profession with NASA included main engineering initiatives just like the Apollo program, the International Space Station, the area shuttle program, and the Hubble area telescope.

“Jim was just a brilliant, brilliant guy,” Dr. Bill Sims mentioned. “He was such a good engineer who produced things that people from all over the world will remember, maybe forever. He was just a really special, special guy.”

Sims and Odom have been mates for greater than 60 years. Odom was from McKenzie whereas Sims is from Bruton, in order that they linked as a result of these communities are close to Anniston.

Odom graduated from Auburn University in 1955 and commenced his engineering profession with Chemstrand Corp. (now Ascend Performance Materials on Alabama 20) in Decatur. The U.S. Army drafted him six months later.

In fall 1956, months after the institution of Redstone Arsenal and 6 years after Wernher von Braun moved to Huntsville from Texas, Odom joined the Army Ballistic Missile Agency. There, he helped construct the Redstone and Jupiter rockets.

Decatur Mayor Tab Bowling mentioned Odom was a part of a staff that began a brand new trade, and he made Decatur proud with all the pieces he did.

“Jim said he only had to make three real choices in life — when to get married, where to go to school and where to attend church,” Bowling mentioned. “Everything else just took care of itself. He experienced a lot of wonderful science and engineering that led to space exploration.”

Bowling mentioned Odom traveled all around the nation with von Braun.

“Jim always said von Braun was the greatest at getting a consensus among smart people on an issue,” Bowling mentioned. “And he (Odom) learned to do the same kind of thing. He had so many opportunities to play a significant role related to space exploration with NASA.”

Odom retired from NASA in 1989 and have become president and CEO of Applied Research in Huntsville. When the corporate was acquired by SAIC in 1994, he served as senior vice chairman and advisor for 20 years.

Odom has obtained quite a few awards, together with two of the best within the nation given to civil servants. President Ronald Reagan introduced to him the Rank of Distinguished Executive in 1988 for “sustained extraordinary accomplishments in the management of programs and for leadership exemplifying the highest standards of service to the public.”

He obtained the Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive in recognition of the numerous advances made beneath his management and his initiatives in strengthening and shaping the nation’s future posture in area.

Odom was additionally the recipient of the NASA Exceptional Service medal and NASA Distinguished Service medal.

Kersey mentioned Odom’s awards and accomplishments didn’t have an effect on his outlook on life or his willingness to assist others. He mentioned Odom constructed wheelchair ramps and, together with his spouse June, the pair embellished the church each Christmas.

The Odoms have been additionally energetic within the Decatur Morgan Hospital Foundation. He was an energetic member of the First Baptist Church, serving as a deacon and Sunday faculty trainer for a few years. He was additionally energetic within the Rotary Club of Decatur.

“Jim never made it about himself as much as he could have with everything he did,” Kersey mentioned. “He truly lived a life of a servant.”

Odom started serving on the Decatur-Morgan County Entrepreneurial Center board of administrators in 2018.

“When Jim agreed to join The E-Center’s board, his only concern was that he ‘wouldn’t be able to add that much,'” mentioned E-Center Executive Director John Joseph. “Here was a man who had reached the greatest heights of professional success in both the public and private sectors, someone who forgot more in an afternoon than I’ll learn in my lifetime. Yet, his faith in God gave him a foundational humility because he understood the giver of his gifts.”

Joseph mentioned Odom additionally mentored Best and Brightest college students “and jumped in to help anytime asked.”

Sims known as Odom a “wonderful man who was a friend to everybody he met. He was a gentle, gentle giant.”

Odom is survived by his spouse of 71 years, June Peevy Odom, daughter, Melanie Odom and son, James Burton Odom Jr., 4 grandchildren and two nice grandchildren.

The public visitation is Wednesday from midday till 1:45 p.m. at First Baptist, adopted by a service at 2. Roselawn Funeral Home is dealing with preparations.

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