Column: Remembering Astronaut Jim Lovell, One of a Rare Kind

Column: Remembering astronaut Jim Lovell, one of a rare kind

It is a long way from Lake Forest to the moon — 240,000 miles, give or take — and Jim Lovell made that trip twice, never setting foot on the moon but seeing things that few people have ever seen and living a life of estimable grace. Lovell, who was 97 years old, died Thursday in that leafy northern suburb where he had lived for decades. It was where, for a time, he operated with his son Jay a terrific restaurant named Lovells and filled it with …

Jim Lovell Overcame Extreme Adversity In ‘NASA’s Finest Hour’

For the past 55 years, Jim Lovell served as living proof of what man can accomplish when he puts his mind to it.

Jim Lovell Overcame Extreme Adversity In 'NASA’s Finest Hour’

For the past 55 years, Jim Lovell served as living proof of what man can accomplish when he puts his mind to it.

Astronaut Jim Lovell’s Enduring Orbit

Only a dozen people have walked on the Moon, all American men. Most folks could name Apollo 11 first-stepper Neil Armstrong, probably. Somewhat fewer likely recall crewmates Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins (the latter piloting the mission’s Columbia command module around the Moon). And almost none could list the other 10.  Jim Lovell, who died last Thursday at 97, never set foot on the lunar surface. Yet his astronaut career still secured him a …

How astronaut Jim Lovell 'inspired generations'

'Jim Lovell never walked the moon, but astronaut was a true trail blazer'Mark Davis at the Miami HeraldThe late astronaut Jim Lovell "blazed that trail on the Apollo 8 voyage that showed that humans could truly leave the Earth," says Mark Davis. In "his Apollo 13 heroism," Lovell reminded "us of the best qualities Americans — and all people — can display." He "never walked on the moon," but his "path through American history, and the legacy he l…

‘We go to heaven when we’re born,’ astronaut Jim Lovell once told us, explaining his spiritual insights

After Jim Lovell, a longtime resident of Lake Forest, died last week at age 97, the obituaries that followed focused largely on his bravery in going to space, the harrowing Apollo 13 mission that was immortalized in the eponymous film in which Tom Hanks played him, and his place in a long-ago era in which the moon was the new frontier. But his contributions came to Chicago Sun-Times readers in other ways when he agreed to an interview for our ol…