(Lee’s Summit) - Summit Christian Academy (SCA) is pleased to share that long-time Secondary History Teacher Greg Finch has authored a book, Space Age Renaissance Man, sharing the amazing story of his father Dr. Harold Finch.
Space Age Renaissance Man takes the reader through Dr. Finch’s life from his humble beginnings in the depression to becoming a key project director for NASA at a young age. Dr. Finch created the “barbeque roll” critical system for Apollo lunar missions that kept astronauts from either freezing or frying to death in the radical temperature extremes of open space, still used today by Space X. In addition, Dr. Finch’s commitment to excellence as a NASA scientist and entrepreneur led to great work in missions and ministries, including Summit Christian Academy. He served on the SCA Board of Education in their early years, at an important turning point in the school’s existence, and continued in an advising role in more recent years.
Author Greg Finch has been a history, government, and geography teacher and university adjunct at SCA since 2001. He was named SCA Teacher of the Year in 2019 and in 2022 was the only Christian school educator to earn the Outstanding Teacher of American History from the Missouri State Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
The book is forwarded by SCA 2012 Alumnus Shannah Withrow-Maser who was inspired and encouraged to pursue a career in Aerospace Engineering by Dr. Finch during her time as a student at SCA. Mrs. Withrow-Maser has gone on to lead many NASA projects, helped design the NASA Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, leads the aeronautics team for multiple next-generation Mars rotorcraft, and recently made it to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
Space Age Renaissance Man will be released nationally by all major booksellers on July 8. 100% of the profits will support Christian educational scholarships.
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