Concord’s Teacher In Space Honored With Statue At New Hampshire Statehouse: Watch

CONCORD, NH — It was an honor long overdue.

Concord High School teacher Christa McAuliffe, who died in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, now has a statue of her likeness on the New Hampshire Statehouse grounds. She was the first woman to be bestowed with such an honor on what would have been her 76th birthday.

Hundreds of people attended the unveiling on Monday.

The statue culminated 18 months of work by the Christa McAuliffe State House Memorial Commission. Gov. Chris Sununu formed the commission in February 2023 by executive order and funded by the Legislature. Commission chairman James Scully said participating in the effort was an undertaking but also a privilege of a lifetime. He called it a historic day for the state of New Hampshire and said McAuliffe was a hero.

“When this process began, admittedly, I did not know the complexities of what it would actually take to get to today,” he said. “One of the remarkable things though about this process was how many hands were involved in making this happen.”

Also Read

• Physics Teacher Is The 2024 Christa McAuliffe Sabbatical Recipient
• Remembering Christa McAuliffe, The Challenger Crew 35 Years Later
• McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center Gets 50 Commemorative Coins
• Christa McAuliffe Could Be On Commemorative $1 Coin
• Christa McAuliffe Day Declared In NH
• WATCH: Concord High School (2016) Honors Christa McAuliffe
• School Remembers Graduate Christa Corrigan McAuliffe
• More Challenger Photos Found
• New Challenger Disaster Film Found
• Remembering the Challenger Crew and Our Teacher, Christa
• 30th Anniversary: Framingham State Hosting Event Celebrating the Legacy of the Space Shuttle Challenger Crew
• National Geographic Channel’s “Challenger Disaster: Lost Tapes”
• Christa McAuliffe Statehouse Memorial Commission Hosts Student Arts-Based Competition

Everyone involved, he said, shared stories of what McAuliffe meant to them and this was “a constant reminder” of why everyone was there for the unveiling.

Sununu said, when forming the commission, he wanted it to not take forever like so much of everything government touches. He gave the commission a goal of 18 months. Some said it was not possible. And yet, everyone was at the Statehouse to praise and celebrate McAuliffe, right on time.

“These folks were at it, this commission was at it,” he said, “engaging with the public, engaging with the family. We put the best and the brightest (on it).”

The governor spoke about being a student, learning about McAuliffe, and how excited he was to have the first citizen and teacher in space live “right down the road” from the Sununu family. His family was also involved in fundraisers with his dad when he was governor and the sabbatical charity — teachers apply for a year away teaching, in her name, to work on special projects.

Pam Melroy, the deputy administrator of NASA and a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and astronaut herself commanding a space shuttle, called McAuliffe “an inspiration.” She said her planned lessons, later given by another astronaut, were meant to get students involved in mathematics and science.

“Christa, of course, embodied and represented the ideal, making space accessible, not only to astronauts but educators and humanities, as a whole,” she said.

Her actions, Melroy said, led to others from all walks of life, including herself, to study STEM and want to become “the explorers of the future.”

Hopkinton student Nathaniel Dunlap, the Christa McAuliffe State House Memorial Commission essay winner, read from the essay. He noted McAuliffe inspired his teacher, Kris Coronis Jacques of the Maple Street School in Hopkinton, who was also a student of McAuliffe’s and a graduate of the Concord High School Class of 1986. She also spoke about McAuliffe and teaching. Other students were honored for artwork contributed to the commission’s contest while the Concord High School Chorus performed the National Anthem and “Be The Light.”

Sculptor Benjamin Victor spoke about how the work creating her statue led him to get to know McAuliffe. He also said the seven months he spent on the project were inspirational. He added he, too, was a student when McAuliffe was involved in the program and always felt for the family after she died.

Steven McAuliffe, a federal judge, spoke on behalf of the family and explained how the process began, starting with the first phone call with Sununu. He said the family was “extraordinarily honored and humbled” by the statue and that the governor pushed for it. Steven McAuliffe commended the Sununu family for raising so much money for the family’s post-Challenger charitable efforts, calling the family “indefatigable.”

Steven McAuliffe said she loved her family, friends, and students and worked to help them overcome adversity. But, she was also her person, secure in her knowledge of what she was deep inside. Christa also “very much loved her own life here in New Hampshire.” She was tireless in her pursuits. As an extraordinary woman, it was no surprise she was chosen even though it was a surprise, he said.

“That selection,” he said, “and all the celebrity that followed didn’t change her in the slightest. She knew who she was and she was content in who she was. From the outset, she said over and over again that she was an ordinary person who had been given an extraordinary opportunity.”

Steven McAuliffe said she was “over the moon” about going up in the shuttle. However, she considered it even more essential to promote teaching and its critical role in society while celebrating other teachers, he said. It was the opportunity she most valued and embraced, Steven McAuliffe said.

Just before the unveiling, Steven McAuliffe said, while he had chosen for many decades not to speak for her, he would in this instance. He said she would be so proud and humbled by such an honor “unhesitatingly and without reservation.” She would also think, however, “to be both disproportionate and way off the mark if it were seen as a personal honor, separate from the representative role that she would embrace.” She would want him to stress, sternly, that the statue needed to be seen and appreciated as a classroom teacher representing her profession, he said.

Do you have a news tip? Please email it to tony.schinella@patch.com. View videos on Tony Schinella's YouTube.com channel or Rumble.com channel. Follow the NH politics Twitter account @NHPatchPolitics for all our campaign coverage.