October 5, 2002
Planetarium named for 'Star Trek' creator Roddenberry
By Louie Gilot
El Paso Times
The
El Paso Independent School District planetarium on Friday went where no
American planetarium had gone before. In a special ceremony, the
planetarium was formally renamed for the late "Star Trek" television
series creator, Gene Roddenberry, an El Paso native. About
120 EPISD officials, El Paso Astronomy Club members, actors from
various sequels to the original TV show and an astronaut, Richard
Gordon, who walked in space on Gemini 11 and orbited the moon on Apollo
7, gathered for a private dinner at the planetarium in the 6500 block
of Boeing Drive for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Michael Dorn,
"Worf" on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "Star Trek: Deep Space
Nine," was in El Paso for the "Star Trek" convention this weekend, and
went to the dinner Friday night. "It's particularly meaningful
because Gene hired us. ('Next Generation') was the last show in which
he had an active hand," Dorn said. Another honored guest had even more personal reasons to be in El Paso. Eugene Roddenberry Jr., Roddenberry's son, had never seen his father's birthplace. Friday afternoon, planetarium administrator John Peterson took the junior Roddenberry to 1907 E. Yandell, where his father was born in 1921. "Now
it's a flower shop. I wondered what it was like before. I kept looking
around, wondering, 'Did he play in the back yard?' " the son said. The elder Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, where he raised his family. He died in 1991. Last November, the EPISD Board of Trustees approved renaming the planetarium, built in 1969, the Gene Roddenberry Planetarium. Its administrator, Peterson, uses parts of "Star Trek" shows to teach children about their universe. " 'Star Trek' is popular with the big kids and the little kids alike. I'm 54 and I'm a fan," he said. Dan
Oppliger, past president of the El Paso Astronomy Club, was
volunteering at the dinner's entrance, away from the excitement. The
only stars he is a fan of are millions of light-years away, but even he
acknowledged that "Star Trek" had an influence in his life. "In
college, there were a couple of physics majors in the dorm, so we'd
have to watch 'Star Trek.' I guess it piqued my interest in physics,"
Oppliger said.
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