HOW STEVE CAME TO EDWARDS.

Steve shares a 20 year heritage with Rockwell / Boeing beginning his career as a co-op on the space shuttle and the production and flight test program for the B1-B.

Steve will join NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in 2004 as a cost engineer. Steve has matured into his role as a Senior Cost Engineer and Program Analyst working within the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center. He is an active member of the NASA Executive Cost Analysts Steering Group (ECASG) and has written and published several white papers.

HOW RENEE CAME TO EDWARDS.

Renee will come to Dryden Flight Research Center as a federal contractor in 2012. She will spend the next four years as a Technical Document Specialist providing administrative support and 9-1-1 dispatch services for the Dryden Health Unit.

In 2016, she will become an assistant library technician and be part of a wonderful team that will open and unlock the doors of Edwards history and change the course of both Renee and Steve's lives.

THE KEN ILIFF KNOWLEDGE CENTER

It is during Renee's engagement at the Research Library that Renee and Steve will meet at last while Steve is working on NASA’s Parametric X-Plane Cost Model, a mathematical algorithm that can predict the cost of an X-Plane.

Steve found himself a “frequent flyer” of the library, and both Renee and Steve remember many meetings with library staff but have differing memories of the research requests: Steve recalls that Renee processed a library loan: X-Planes: X-1 thru X-45 authored by Jay Miller; and Renee remembers poring over hours and hours Janes.

Over the next few months, their dates were shaped by Steve’s local anecdotes about growing up in the Antelope Valley: they will have lunch at the Rock Inn in Lake Hughes, they will visit the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve with a little freckled-faced Matthew in tow. They will share a few work dates and even a few romantic dinner dates and then that will be the end of that.

Until fate decides that they should cross paths again in 2017 at an Ice cream social event held at the Center. Renee has begun work on a large-scaled digitization project and the two will share a few work lunch dates, they will converse for a bit by phone, and then once more the two will embark on separate paths. Renee will relocate to Bakersfield and work for her parents at Big R’s Carpet. Steve will complete his Cost Model and will be presented with the NASA Silver medal in June 2017.

Renee will return to Edwards as a Museum Specialist for the Air Force Flight Test Museum at the end of 2020, but it will be another three years before Steve and Renee will reconnect. Fast forward to December 2023. Renee has been invited by her former supervisor to attend a retirement party at Bravery Brewery and it was not long before a familiar face with a familiar grin and mischievous eyes was soon at her elbow. Before either Steve or Renee had made it home for the evening, plans were already underway to meet the next day for lunch at the Flight Test Museum.

Steve brought a picnic and Renee giggled to herself because unbeknownst to Steve (and everyone else in the room), she considered this meet up as a date and Steve was being “interviewed” by both museum volunteers and staff, the Director included. Renee would walk Steve to his car afterwards and her smile said it all. They will exchange their first kiss in the parking lot and both agree they knew then that something new was beginning.

Their next dates will take place in quick succession as the two will find every excuse to be together. They will paint together on New Year’s Eve, they will review essays for AIAA and soon Renee will join Steve serving the Antelope Valley Chapter. They will travel together to conferences and speaking engagements, including Steve’s former Rocketdyne. As a board member for the Antelope Valley Rural Museaum, the two will converse and debate museum trends and concerns and there seems to be no blurring of work and play and more often than not, somehow those two worlds co-exist.

For Mother’s Day, Steve decided that he would treat Renee and her family to dinner at Wool Grower’s in Bakersfield. As the evening drew to a close, Steve surprised Renee with his grandmother’s ring and asked for her hand in marriage. He would later claim that those few seconds seemed to drag on for an eternity. There was a moment of stunned silence until Renee finally said yes! There was a lot of hugging and laughter and just like that….

Our families have grown. We have multiplied and become two large families, and we are no longer alone. We have found each other in a world that wants to tear people apart and tear people down and we have decided to cleave to one another, love one another, and remain faithful to one another.

Please reserve your time to become a part of our celebration and to add to our story.

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