Season 2 | Episode 7 • LA Times Festival of Books-Part Two

Engineer, Rocket Scientist, Life Coach, Community Leader, & Author

Norbert Soski earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). He started his engineering career designing hand-held electronic games at Mattel Toys/Mattel Electronics and holds a patent on one (www.handheldmuseum.com/Mattel/LAGames.htm).

He then moved on to designing computer and avionics systems for such programs as the F-16 LANTIRN pod and MILSTAR satellite programs, the electrical power system for the International Space Station (ISS), rocket engine control systems for the Delta IV RS-68 first-stage engine and J-2X second-stage engine, and environmental control systems for industrial kitchen equipment. As an engineer, he really enjoys creating products that have never existed before. His greatest professional achievement was the RS-68 Engine Control Unit; a first of its kind rocket engine controller.

In other areas of his life, he started working with children at the age of thirteen as a summer camp counselor and as a religious schoolteacher, until graduating from college. However, his greatest and proudest personal achievements are his thirty-plus-year marriage and his own two children. He had the opportunity to be his children’s baseball and soccer coaches and Scoutmaster of his son’s Boy Scout troop and mentor for his High School’s FIRST and VEX robotics teams.

He also served on the board of directors of two non-profit organizations and was a volunteer, elected member of a Los Angeles-area neighborhood council. But in his off time, he mostly enjoys bicycling, along with downhill skiing, hiking/camping/backpacking, SCUBA diving, and launching high-powered model rockets out in the desert.

RosaLinda Diaz, was raised in a particularly magical section of Los Angeles; between the original Disney Hyperion Studios and Snow White’s Cottages. The magic in the air and soil gave her already active imagination roots and wings. Wings that took her gypsying around Europe, Australia, and Africa, and roots that brought her back to California to earn her B.A. at Pepperdine University. She makes her home in California’s Central Coast igniting the fire of creativity and sparking imaginations with her endeavors.