School News

Miami native soars with NASA, novel

Curley Notre Dame grad writes sci-fi novel, retires from NASA

Friday, July 23, 2010
Florida Catholic staff - Florida Catholic

COURTESY PHOTO Charles Justiz, Ph.D., a 1970 graduate of Archbishop Curley Notre Dame High School, published his first novel this June after retiring from NASA as an instructor and examiner pilot.

MIAMI – June 1 of this year marked a big day for Charles Justiz, Ph.D., a 1970 graduate of Archbishop Curley Notre Dame High School. On this day, Justiz retired as a NASA instructor and examiner pilot and also released his first published novel, “Specific Impulse.”

The novel is the first in a trilogy involving characters Carin Gonzales and former submarine commander Jake Sabio — two strangers drifting separately through life when a mysterious explosion rocks them together and changes them both in unpredictable ways. Time is running out for Gonzales and Sabio as an infection caused by the explosion is slowly killing them. A solution to their dilemma must be found quickly, but the more Gonzales and Sabio look for an answer, the more they are convinced they have run across something never before experienced by humankind.

COURTESY PHOTO Cover of the first novel by Charles Justiz, a science-fiction tale called "Specific Impulse."

Justiz is a native of Miami whose parents came from Havana, Cuba. Following graduation from Archbishop Curley, he joined the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he graduated in 1973. Because of his interest in the mechanics of flight, the Air Force made Justiz a test pilot at Eglin Air Force Base and by 1980 he had joined NASA to train astronauts. He also holds a doctorate degree from the University of Houston in Thermo Physics and Plasma Dynamics and is a NASA Doctoral Fellow. He lives in Seabrook, Texas, with his wife, Dayna Steele (also an author), and their three sons.

Justiz said that public school would not have given him the same quality of education that he received in Catholic school.

“There is no question that my days at Curley helped shape me in a way that I would not change for anything,” Justiz said.

He said he vividly recalls teachers who reinforced a style of learning that moved beyond the textbooks.

Speaking about his calculus teacher, Mr. Blitzer, Justiz said: “This class was not your traditional class where they bored through the book and tested at a pace prescribed in some curriculum. This guy actually loved this stuff! He brought the subject to life for me and made me understand why we should even bother with such trivia. Because of him, I understood calculus better than most of my fellow cadets when I got to the U.S. Air Force Academy. It was an immeasurable advantage to a budding engineer.”

Justiz said two other Curley teachers influenced his appreciation of literature. Spanish teacher Dr. Garcia-Montez, a former Cuban lawyer and Bay of Pigs prisoner of war who would bring history to life as well as quote entire pages of Spanish poems. Justiz also is grateful to classical English literature teacher Brother Vincent de Paul.

“Because of him, I have a dozen Shakespeare soliloquies stuck in my head,” said Justiz. “Although painful at the time, I thank him almost daily now.”

Information about Charles Justiz and his novel can be found at www.charlesjustiz.com.