Raul E Reyes

Raul Ernesto “Ernie”Reyes, a loving husband and beloved father passed away peacefully on November 30, 2020. Born on February 23,1938, in his home town of El Paso, Texas, he graduated from El Paso High School and went on to New Mexico State earning a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He married the love of his life, Ida Carreon spending 59 wonderful years together. After graduating from New Mexico State, he took a job at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio working on the XB-70 program for the USAF. The next step in his aerospace journey took him to Houston, Texas to begin his thirty-six year career with NASA. His first assignment with NASA was working on the Mercury Program until he was transferred to White Sands to work on the Little Joe II Program. In 1964, he was selected by some great mentors to move to Florida and work at Kennedy Space Center for the Gemini Program. In the succeeding years, he worked on Apollo (where he was known throughout KSC for his daily Snoopy cartoons), Sky Lab, Viking, Space Lab and the Space Shuttle Programs. He was proud of his Mexican heritage and was one the first Latinos in NASA management.  He had many hobbies including, scuba diving, photography, jewelry making, pottery and RC airplane building/flying. Most importantly he loved people and never met a stranger.  Ernie was very proud of his three daughters and they will cherish every memory. Patricia Light and her husband Jim of Redondo Beach, California, Terri Greenwell and husband Shawn of Titusville, Florida, and Anita Mardosa and husband Danny of Cocoa Beach, Florida. The light of his life were his five grandchildren, Alicia McArdle, Brendon and Michael Greenwell, and Cecelia and Thomas Williamsen, who loved and adored their PopPop.  Throughout the years Ernie “adopted” many sons whom he loved as his own, Henry Castro Jr., Eric Schipfer, Marc, Chris and Scott Stallard, Tom McArdle, and Rob Williamsen. In recent years he was especially grateful for the love and support shown by his sister-in-law, Diane Reyes.  Ernie’s unique personality, generous heart and love of life will be dearly missed by all who knew him - including the Wednesday night “sinning” group. The family is planning a celebration of life at a later date.