BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — This year, a man who made space history will be honored at the BOLDERBoulder.
The University of Colorado in Boulder always had a special place in Col. Ellison Onizuka’s heart. Because of that, the same goes for his daughter.
He wanted to become an astronaut ever since he was a little kid. He earned a bachelor's and master's at CU Boulder in the 1960s.
"That had a lot to do to inspire him to become an astronaut," said his daughter Janelle Onizuka-Gillilan.
She said he joined the Air Force and, in 1985, became the first Asian-American to explore space on board the Space Shuttle Discovery.
"He would always tell them, 'You know, this is where it all began for me,'" she said.
On Jan. 28, one year later, Janelle spoke to him before he boarded the Space Shuttle Challenger.
"I told my dad, I said, 'You promise to come home,'" she recalled. "He said yes. And I said, 'OK, I'll see you when you get back.'"
She was just 16 years old
"That was the last conversation I had," said Onizuka-Gillilan.
Seventy-three seconds after lifting off from Earth, the launch had gone horribly wrong as the astronauts families watched.
"Everything had just gone silent, and then minutes later, it was chaos," said Onizuka-Gillilan.
Janelle remembers her mom being whisked away as she tried to process what just happened to her dad. It became all too clear when she saw her mom come back out.
"She wasn't walking, she was being carried out. So, to me, that was even worse," she said. "I thought my whole life had just dropped before me."
Forty years later, she still talks about how her father inspires her and her own children to this day.
"They always want to be like their grandpa," said Onizuka-Gillilan. "And it amazes me that they want to be like my dad and he has inspired my kids and they've never even met him."
He was a man motivated by education, who taught his daughter to never quit. Now, she hopes people at the BOLDERBoulder will feel the same when he is recognized in a place so precious to him.
"He had a quote, and this is something that I want to share with them, is that your vision is not limited by what your eyes can see, but by what your mind can imagine," she said.
Col. Onizuka is being honored at the BOLDERBoulder's Memorial Day Tribute, marking 40 years since the Challenger tragedy.
