Jacqueline June Ratekin's Obituary
Jacqueline June Ratekin passed away peacefully just 9 days before what would have been her 95th birthday. Jacqueline is survived by her husband Gary, and daughters Laura Adams, Stacey Elliott, and Michelle Thomas. Her oldest daughter, Cathy Waits, preceded her in death in July, 2024.
While raising her daughters, Jacqueline worked at Rocketdyne, initially a division of North American Aviation, and continued her studies at the University of California at Los Angeles. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics from UCLA in 1971. After working at Rocketdyne 40 years, Jacqui retired in 1988.
Jacqueline participated in the design and manufacturing of all the large rocket engines that sent astronauts to the moon. She was then an important part of the design and testing of the Space Shuttle Main Engine which remains the highest performance large liquid rocket engine ever produced. During this time, Jacqueline was the manager of the group responsible for the engine controller software.
For recreation, Jacqueline and Gary made many houseboating trips on Lake Powell, made numerous backpacking trips in the high Sierra Nevada mountains and two hikes, each for one week, to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. For many years they trailered their boat to the San Juan Islands on the United States Canadian border for eight to ten night cruises in these beautiful islands. Later in life, they took multiple cruises throughout the world seeing 40 different countries.
Jacqueline will be dearly missed by all who knew her.
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