Herb Goettman (Canadarm II) Speech- Main Speaker at Reunion Dinner

Thanks for the intro.

Go figure! When I looked at my entry in the yearbook, the writing was on the wall.

What I wrote, at the time was meant to be sarcasm, but I wrote pi to 100 decimal places, and followed it with “math has as much charm as a stuck zipper” !

Now the projects in my career, orbits the earth !

Have you ever had an epiphany, you know a revealing moment?

There were 3 memorable times in my life when I've had an epiphany, although at the time it felt like the rug getting pulled out from under me.

The first time was when I found out that Santa was make believe. Here was the trusting love of your parents deceiving you. Yeah who remembers that?

The lesson learned.

The second time was when I found out the truth about the birds and the bees.
Yeah who remembers that one too?

The lesson learned; sometimes the truth is obvious, just join the dots.

Now you decided that you need an education – and your getting your vinyl Addis sport bag packed for DSS.

Now the third time starts at DSS. Life was once again happy go lucky, and science was pure because it was measurable, repeatable, and explainable.

In grade 10, 11, 12 we had the likes of Mr. Sigmund who made science a riot


By grade 13 science we had Mr Bernstein. Mr. B was straight laced and methodological kind of guy. Very serious.

In grade 13 we learnt about PV=nRT, the ideal gas law
If you recall
P=pressure,
V=volume,
n= number of moles
R = Raleigh constant
T=temperature

We were very happy to plug in all sorts of values for PVT to solve the equation.

Now for fun, PV=nRT is apparent in our daily lives. When you pump up your kids bike tire, the pump nozzle gets hot. Increase P causes T to increase.

Now in university, this all came crashing down. It was learned the ideal gas law is valid only for 1 atmosphere. What a shock to find out that were mislead to keep life simple.

The lesson learned; science has boundaries.

In fact, we can use this science to predict that hell will never freeze over. In fact it's getting hotter by the day.

If PV=nRT, then as the population is increasing, more people are going to hell, the size of Hell is fixed, so then Temperature is going up.

So in the end it was an education at DSS that got the Canadarm on orbit, and that hell will never freeze over.

Talk about an education!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the DSS reunion committee and volunteers to make this an extraordinary event.

It was your passion and enthusiasm that has reconnected so many people.

And to a dear old friend, Mike Dmytrenko whose sharp memory and DSS forum champion has brought back so many lost memories. He is such a MVP. I think his extraordinary brain should be given to science just like Einstein’s.