Thomas E. “Tommy” Roberts, age 86

Thomas E. “Tommy” Roberts, a retired rocket scientist of North Little Rock, Ark., died Dec. 6, 2024, at age 86. He was born Feb. 2, 1938, in Big Spring, Texas, to Thomas S. Roberts and Willie Mae Heath Roberts.

He spent 27 years as a programmer and analyst in the Federal Systems Division of IBM, under contract to NASA and a variety of military space projects. Also, during his U.S. Army enlistment, he was stationed with an artillery unit in Germany in support of a nuclear-warhead-equipped Redstone rocket he hoped never to see launched.

After graduating Big Spring High School in 1956, Tommy pieced together a college education from multiple schools with help from the U.S. Navy and Army, Texas Opportunity Plan and plain hard work at any job he could fit around his class schedule and support his growing family. In the end, he completed a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from West Texas State University in 1963.

He immediately started at IBM, where he was trained as a computer programmer. One of his first assignments was to help computerize the Navy as one of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s “whiz kids” modernization drive. Starting with NASA at the end of the Gemini program, he also worked on the Apollo program that put an American on the moon, as well as Spacelab and Space Shuttle programs. He specialized in launch-abort and re-entry programming and was instrumental in writing software for the “slingshot” maneuver that allowed Apollo 13 to return to earth after a crippling explosion.

Between NASA contracts he worked on a variety of Air Force and other military projects, including one he swore the FBI would pick him up if he ever talked about it.

Tommy’s final stint with NASA in the Houston area lasted 18 years until he took early retirement in 1989. During that time his entire family was deeply involved in FFA and youth livestock competitions. The kids grew up, and Tommy became a bachelor again.

Tommy poured his lifelong love of dancing into learning the Houston Whip, a form of swing dance popular in the area. He was active in several dance clubs, holding office, helping organize events, teaching club classes, judging and competing successfully at the club, state and regional levels.

When he moved to central Arkansas in the early 1990s, he joined the Little Rock Bop Club in its earliest days and the American Bop Association as a founding board member. He taught and performed, held office, attended dozens of dance conventions and made all the ladies look good.

In 2002, he and his wife Emily were inducted into the American Bop Hall of Fame, recognizing extraordinary service to the swing dance community. The National Association of Rhythm & Blues DeeJays presented Tommy with the Rufus Oates Award in 2006, an honor for exceptional service that also confers lifetime membership. In 2012, as health issues ended his dancing years, LRBC presented a special award to Tommy for years of outstanding service.

Tommy was preceded in death by his parents, his son Scott Roberts, stepfather Paul Kuykendall, stepmother Jessie Roberts, his sisters Gene Crosby and Elizabeth Ann Roberts and his brother Dale Roberts.

He is survived by Emily Roberts, his wife of 28 years; daughter Patty Couvillon of Leakey, Texas; son Terry Roberts (Lisa) of Alvin, Texas; brothers Ronnie Roberts (Teri), Benny Roberts, Lloyd Kuykendall and Bob Kuykendall (Bobbie); four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren; and Frances Lindsay, the mother of his children.

Tommy’s funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 18 at St. Anne Catholic Church, 6150 Remount Rd. in North Little Rock. Burial in Alto, Texas, yet to be arranged.