Stephen M. Andrich was born April 17, 1925, on Galveston Island. He passed away on February 2, 2016 at 90 years of age.  As a young man, he served as an altar boy and graduated from Kirwin High School. He later enlisted in the Army and served in the Signal Corp. At the end of the war, his unit set up communications on the USS Missouri for the signing of the Japanese surrender to end WWII. In 1950, he graduated from Texas A&M with a mechanical/electrical engineering degree. He worked at Convair in Ft. Worth as a test engineer on the top secret nuclear B-36 and flew many test flights over West Texas with a live nuclear reactor on board. Later, he worked on the development of the supersonic B-58 Hustler and was on the first flight that broke Mach 2 in 1957. Shortly after, he was selected by Convair to attend the International Air Show in Paris.  After a year at Astronautics in San Diego, he then came to work at NASA JSC, serving 30 years on the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Shuttle programs.  During those years, he and his wife Mary raised six kids. They recently celebrated their 65^th Anniversary.  They are among “The Greatest Generation”.  Stephen is survived by his loving wife Mary, six children, David, Michael, Don, Cathy, Tony, Carolyn; 13 grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren.

Monday February 8, 2016

Viewing/Service at Crowder Funeral Home, Webster, TX 1:00pm/2:00pm

Military Honors and Burial to follow service at Forest Park East Cemetery