Margrit von Braun is an environmental engineer specializing in hazardous waste management and risk assessment. She was one of the first women to join the University of Idaho College of Engineering faculty in 1980,and served as their Dean of the College of Graduate Studies.

Margrit’s father was Dr. Wernher von Braun, the first director of the Marshall Space Flight Center who led the development of the Saturn V rocket that sent the Apollo astronauts to the moon. Dr. von Braun was also instrumental in the public relations efforts to convince the American people that efforts in space were possible and important. To do so, he partnered with Walt Disney and appeared on several episodes of The Wonderful World of Disney.

“My sister and I each got to meet Disney,” Margrit shared. “He was such a creative guy, and he was very interested in space and interested in helping my father figure out how to tell the story with animation and with models in ways that had not been done before. That was a great collaboration.”

Though the effects of Dr. von Braun’s celebrity status did impact Margrit’s life growing up, her parents always made sure their family life felt like any other family’s circumstances.

Margrit recalls learning to roller skate down the long, empty hallways at Marshall Space Flight Center on the weekends when her father had work to do there.

“I think I grew up pretty normally,” remembered Margrit. “I guess it wasn’t until much later that I realized that having astronauts at your dinner table wasn’t something everybody did. As a kid, I don’t think you really notice that, and we weren’t really encouraged to feel special.”

Learn more about Margrit von Braun and other professionals, scientists, and engineers from aeronautic and space history by subscribing to “Dare to Explore,” the official podcast of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Foundation. “Dare to Explore” can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you listen.