By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

When constructing a statute like the one of former astronaut Roger B. Chaffee on the corner of Sheldon Boulevard and Fulton Street in downtown Grand Rapids, the most difficult part is trying to figure out what the person looked like from behind.

“When you think about it, people never take pictures of people from behind, it is always from the the front,” said filmmaker Daniel Joel Deal, whose documentary, “Roger B. Chaffee: Aviator Ad Astra” will premiere on WKTV Channel 25 Wednesday, Oct. 16, at 4 p.m., and Friday, Oct. 18, at noon. The film follows the story of Chaffee’s life and the construction of the statue in his honor.

Sculputor J. Brett Grill, who was commissioned to create the Roger B. Chaffee sculpture, agreed.

“Figuring out how the [astronaut’s] suit is going to lay, where the folds should be to create the movement, it’s all important to the piece,” Grill said during a recent Locally Entertaining podcast.

The Michigan Military Preservation Society (MMPS), together with the Lowell American Legion Post #152, raised the funds for the statue. The statute was the swan song for the MMPS, a non-profit organization of veterans whose vision was to honor historical contributions made by West Michigan vets. The group officially disbanded after the statute of Chaffee was installed by the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum in May.

As part of the project, the MMPS hired Deals to create a documentary about Chaffee and the construction of the statute. Chaffee was a NASA astronaut who was part of the Apollo 1 crew. The crew, which included Gus Grissom and Ed White, all died in a flash fire during a launch pad test at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.

Chaffee was from the Grand Rapids area, having graduated from Central High School in 1953. His parents moved to the Wyoming area after his death. The City of Wyoming’s Roger B. Chaffee Boulevard is named after Chaffee and is the former landing strip of the Kent County Airport which became the Gerald R. Ford International Airport.

“He was definitely up and coming,” said Deal of Chaffee. Deal spent about 18 months researching Chaffee’s life, visiting the National Archives and other sources for video. Through that process, Deals said he was able to find quite a bit of video on Chaffee including funeral footage and video of Chaffee talking about his life and career.

“So Chaffee narrates his own story, which was important to me because I wanted people to know who he is and leave some mystery as to what was going to happen,” Deal said.

Deal said having access to a facility like WKTV is vital to a person like himself who pretty much handles all the aspects of film producing.

“I am just a single producer, director, photographer and editor, so you know to have lights, cameras, and even some of the post-production stuff in the editing suites for mixing sound effects and stuff like that is important,” Deal said.

“All the rocket sounds are silent, so we added that,” he said, adding with a laugh, “I think we shook the building and someone came and told us that that rocket is too loud.”

For both Deal and Grill, the reason they wanted to work on this project was the opportunity to preserve a piece of history that was starting to fade.

“I like projects that I can keep the story alive,” Grill said. “This was one of those stories which was what drew me to being a part of this project.”

Other showings of the documentary “Roger B. Chaffee: Aviator Ad Astra” are planned, so check out the WKTV schedule on the wktvjournal.org and on wktv.org.