Blind Paging, Area Warning System Operator Hitchhiked to Work

By Bob Granath

“Attention in the VAB area. Vehicle rollout is about to commence.”

This is a typical announcement frequently heard at America’s spaceport. During the early 1970s, NASA and its contractors were gearing up for launch of the nation’s first space station — Skylab. During that time, LeRoy Sparks operated the emergency notification system at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center. Like thousands of his fellow employees, he was passionate about his work. Although he had a disability, he never allowed it to get in the way of doing his job.

Sparks, who is blind, worked behind the scenes as a paging system operator at a console in the Launch Control Center. He was part of the Voice Systems Operations team in the Communications Department of contractor Federal Electric Corporation.

During second shift, Sparks was responsible for the Paging and Area Warning System, betterknown as PAWS. It is an emergency notification system designed to provide audible announcements with information for the workforce across the center’s expansive campus. According to a March 22, 1973 article in the center’s by-weekly newspaper, Spaceport News, “His deep pleasant voice reaches all facilities at the sprawling launch complex from his paging console.”

These announcements keep thousands of employees aware of hazardous testing and inclement weather such as lightning. Additional announcements may cover planned power interruptions and off-center roadway closures.

While Sparks was born in the small southwest Georgia town of Arlington, his family moved to Sanford, Florida when he was a year and a half old. While studying at the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and Blind, he learned to read and write Braille.

While not at work, Sparks noted that he listened to a variety of recorded publications and magazines read by professional actors, television personalities, radio announcers and professional readers. He explained that he particularly enjoyed “reading” mystery stories. These are provided by various government and service associations to assist the visually impaired. A bi-monthly catalog provides book reviews covering a wide range of subjects.

Sparks began working at Kennedy in 1968, a time when few African Americans were employed in professional positions at the space center. In 1970 he moved to Merritt Island when commuting from Sanford became what he described as “somewhat of a chore.” Each day he hitchhiked the 20 miles from his home to his 3:30 p.m. to midnight work shift.

Speaking about getting a ride home late at night, he said simply, “I try standing at the gate for a while, then (if no one picks him up there) I go out on the road and I never seem to have much trouble getting home.”

Sparks’ Federal Electric Corporation supervisor, Gordon Bell, explained in the 1973 Spaceport News article that being blind has not hindered Sparks from displaying a remarkable devotion.

“I am impressed by LeRoy’s sincere effort to get to work,” he said. “In fact, an incident a year or so ago illustrates his conscientiousness. He was in Sanford on a Monday morning and missed his ride to Kennedy Space Center. He took a bus to Cocoa, a taxi from Cocoa to the space center’s gate and called us from the gate. I wonder how many persons would have gone to that length to get to work.”

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