Fun Linotype Stuff

Bob Luther

Born in Madisonville, Tennessee, 91-year-old Robert Norman Luther finished his life journey in Huntsville, Alabama, on September 7, 2022. He spent his professional career there after graduating from the University of Tennessee with a degree in electrical engineering.

A licensed, professional engineer, he worked on many NASA and Army projects including the Saturn 5/moon landing, Hubble Space Telescope, and fully responsible for all the instrumentation for the Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters. 

Robert was an avionics repair man at the VF-100 during the Korean War. He fell in love with aviation at the age of six, thanks to his grandfather who took him to see the planes at the Chattanooga airport. Eventually, he learned to fly and do all of his aircraft work and was quick to help others when asked. He had both A&P and IA licenses with much experience working on his beloved “green pickle “ (1960 Cessna 210) and others.

When he left the space program, he and his partner founded a successful security company with contracts around the South. When they sold it he retired to his hanger “office” at Hazel Green Airport where he served on the board and/or president of Hazel Green Flyers for 18 years.

Recently, he returned to his roots in the printing trade—having learned to set type for his stepfather‘s weekly newspapers while growing up. He could not say "no" to being given a Mergenthaler Linotype machine, and a Chandler & Price 1910 printing press—both of which he rebuilt completely, to full working order.

He also wrote and published Tramp Printer, a memoir of his time as a journeyman printer, to go along with his novels Skybolt and Corporate Space.