Margaret
Klute
Portland, Oregon
"Klute Crater"
Cotton fabric, batting.
Photo printing on
fabric, machine
appliqué, piecing and
quilting.
Poem by
Margaret Klute
November 14, 2008
I am trying to get to
my father.
I studied geolog
which was one of
his hobbies.
and caught a trace
of him there.
I am reading about
bombs.
Robert
Oppenheimer.
and the secret city of
Oak Ridge,
Tennessee.
I am reading about
rockets.
and Warner Von
Braun.
and the race to the
moon.
My father didn’t go
to the moon.
but he tried to get
others there.
and his name is
there.
His work was first
about airplane
engines.
then purifying
uranium to make
atomic bombs.
then modeling three
dimensional
elasticity.
then designing
combustion stability
in
the chambers of the
Saturn V rocket.
And then to end it all
all.
there was some kind
of explosion.
in the chambers of
his heart.
More than one.
And so I cannot get
to him.
I sift through the
blast debris just for a
trace.
This Dream Rocket
panel honors my
father, Daniel O’
Donnell Klute,
(1921-1964). He was
born in Detroit,
Michigan, and
graduated from
University of
Michigan in 1942 with
a degree in
Engineering. During
WWII, he worked for
the Chrysler Institute
in Detroit, developing
aircraft engines for
the war effort while
earning his Master’s
degree. My mother,
Frances Mary Kramer,
also worked there,
hired for a war time
job testing
experimental airplane
engines. They
married in 1945, and
moved immediately
to Oakridge, TN,
where my father
worked in the
Manhattan Project.
After the
war, they moved to
California, and Daniel
earned his PhD at UC
Berkeley in 1950, and
then joined the
Space Race.
At the time of his
death from a heart
attack in 1964, he
was working for
Rocketdyne in
Canoga Park,
California. There he
played a key role in
solving the
combustion
instability problem in
the F-1 engine that
would go on to
power the Saturn V
rocket to the moon.
After his death he
received a Public
Service Award from
NASA.
In 1970, the
International
Astronomical Union
named a crater on
the far side of the
moon in his honor,
as a representative
of the engineers and
technologists who
contributed to the
moon landing.
My parents
welcomed nine
children between
1948 and 1962.
Daniel was a devoted
family man, and an
avid hiker and
camper. Yosemite
National Park and
Death Valley were
favorite destinations.
He pursued hobbies
of photography,
woodworking and
geology, and sang in
his church choir. He
designed and had
built an amazing
addition to our
house in Granada
Hills, California,
where we continued
to live until we were
all grown.
My mother never
remarried, but
devoted herself to
raising our family
until her death in
2006. We have
always taken great
pride in knowing
that our father made
a significant
contribution to the
Space Race, and it is
in that spirit that I
am contributing this
panel to the Dream
Rocket.