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Laura Shepard Churchley is active in the space
and astronaut community. She is the Chair of the Astronauts
Scholarship Foundation Board at Kennedy Space Center. This
organization conducts fundraising for college scholarships in
math, science, and engineering. She meets with present and past
scholars at their annual meeting, some of whom have entered the
military, to encourage them in space travel.
Laura just concluded a six-year term
as a Board Member of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center
Foundation, which houses the most extensive display of flown
American and Russian spacecraft in the world from the 1960’s and
1970’s space race. The Foundation raises funds to educate and
inspire K-12 students and teachers in the fields of math and
science.
As the daughter of Alan B. Shepard,
the first American in Space and the first to hit a golf ball on
the surface of the moon (Apollo XIV), Laura makes presentations
to middle school students, donning her father’s flight suit and
showing artifacts that have traveled to the moon and back. She
thinks space travel is essential for expanding man’s horizons
and for encouraging innovation. She would like to see more
attention paid to US space endeavors in the future. Laura is an
honorary consultant to the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium and is
a Life-time member of the Society of Sponsors for the United
States Navy.
In her local community, Laura has
been a retail business owner and a board member of the Evergreen
Chamber of Commerce, Evergreen Arts Foundation, and Hiwan
Homeowners Association. She is a charter member of the
Daughters of the American Revolution, Mountain Rendezvous
chapter, and a former president of Hiwan Women's Golf
Association. Mrs. Churchley is a member of PEO and has served as
president and treasurer of her local sorority. She enjoys
golfing, embroidery, snow and water skiing, auctioneering,
travel and photography. Her husband Fred and she, combined,
have six grown children, 2 grandchildren and reside in
Evergreen, Colorado.
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