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As a matter of fact, Hal Weitzbuch is a rocket scientist.

SKOKIE life, August 8, 1996


By ELLEN ALMER, Staff Writer

Web format @ by Prof. P. Johnson

He's A Rocket Man

Hal with rocket

Wunderkind from out West
spends a summer in Skokie
shooting for the stars


As a matter of fact, Hal Weitzbuch is a rocket scientist.


That is to say this 16-year old is one step closer to that lofty title since he participated in a crash course in rocketry that included a trip to Great America and a month-long stay with his grandparents in Skokie.

Weitzbuch, a native of the sunny climes of Los Angeles, worked as a certified lifeguard and surfed the waves of the Pacific Ocean last summer. This year, he chose to head east for a July full of lectures and studying at Chicago's Illinois Institute of Technology.

Now this future engineer/scientist/astronaut (pick one) is winding down his stint at IIT's "Discovery Approach to Science Enhancement" (DASH) course, in which he and about 30 other gifted high school students learned how to build and launch a rocket Weitzbuch learned it so well, in fact, that he and his partner won the prize for best craftsmanship for their red, white and blue contraption.

"I think, when I get home, I'll just want to hang out with my friends," says Weitzbuch, who admits he really should spend those last few weeks before his junior year of high school studying for one of his advanced-placement tests and the upcoming Academic Decathlon.

Feel free to insert the word over achiever right about here, because it certainly applies: Weitzbuch has participated in various math and science summer programs at Northwestern University during his high school career; 		he is the only participant in the IIT program who was selected from out of state; and backhome, he runs cross-country and track at Calabasas High School in the San Fernando Valley. His perfect GPA of 4.0 could almost be added as an after thought.

Weitzbuch, who began rocket-building at the tender age of 9, says he might attend Northwestern University but insists he has not been too serious about his college search.

"Tomorrow I send him home, and I'll be able to rest," said proud but exhausted grandfather Sal Goldberg Friday, Aug. 2, the day Weitzbuch graduated from the IIT program. Sal and his wife, Sylvia, who hosted their grandson throughout the summer, have lived in their home on the 8100 block of Hamlin Avenue for 40 years and recently retired from Sal's Furniture Repair, the business they operated from their basement.

Hal's grandparents According to Sylvia, grandson Hal has been keeping them busy "from 6a.m. to 11 at night. "But it seems rocket science satisfies only Weitzbuch's academic urges. Otherwise, it takes guitar lessons, frequent workouts at Skokie's Weber Leisure Center and plenty of skateboarding to keep this teen's life truIy balanced.

"There's this great area right behind my grandparent's house that's all blacktop, and it's perfect for skateboarding, " comments Weitzbuch. "The only thing I don't like about Skokie is that there's no waves, " he adds, sounding more like a teen-age surfer dude than a youngish academician.

But then he tells you about his trip to Great America, that cotton candy roller-coaster-adolescent haven where many an adult fears to tread, and you remember you're dealing with a teen-ager, albeit one who is very academically inclined.

"We learned how the rides worked, "Weitzbuch says in earnest. "We measured the angle of . . ." and before you know it, he's reciting some equation that determines velocity and other scientific sounding stuff.

Ah, the joys of a youthful summer spent recklessly.




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