While waiting for a tryout with the Dallas Cowboys, Leland Melvin, R’86, worked as a courier for his agent. While delivering a package on the UR campus, he bumped into Dr. Ray Dominey, associate professor of chemistry, who also taught at the University of Virginia at the time.
“Hey! What are you doing here?” Dominey asked.
“Well … I’m delivering packages while I’m waiting to go play football,” Melvin answered.
“Why don’t you go up to U.Va. and talk to Glenn Stoner in materials science engineering?” Dominey suggested.
“Why?” Melvin resisted. “I’m going to play football.”
After a pep talk from Dominey about making better use of his time and talent, Melvin contacted Stoner and landed a position as a research assistant. When Melvin aggravated his hamstring injury in Dallas, he returned to U.Va. and earned a master’s degree in materials science.
His master’s degree led to a job at NASA Langley Research Center, which eventually led to a spot in the Astronaut Corps.
“It’s been kind of like the story of my life,” Melvin said, in a preflight interview published by NASA. “Bumping into the professor in the parking lot, bumping into people here and there who have led me to this position.”
Send comments about this story to krhodes@richmond.edu.
