Monday, July 27, 2009
CINCINNATI (AP) — Sharing the same name as another person in your area isn’t usually a big deal, unless your name is Neil Armstrong.
Neil Allen Armstrong of Symmes Township in suburban Cincinnati says he gets calls and packages constantly from autograph seekers, school kids and reporters.
He tries to explain that he’s not the same man as Neil Alden Armstrong of nearby Indian Hill, but some people don’t always believe him.
The nonastronaut Armstrong, who is 38, estimates he gets a phone call a week and a letter a month, with calls increasing dramatically when summer ends and kids go back to school.
“The first month of school, I bet I get a call a night,” Armstrong said. “Little kids saying, ‘I’m doing a book report. Can you answer questions? Can you come to my school?’”
The 78-year-old astronaut, who rarely appears in public or grants interviews, has been back in the news with the 40th anniversary of his first steps on the moon.
Neil Allen Armstrong was born in 1971, two years after the Apollo 11 mission that put astronauts Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. His grandfather, a reporter for the Wheeling News-Register, avidly followed the space program.
Armstrong, a married father of four who works for a financial services firm, has never met his namesake, although he said he would welcome the opportunity.
He says he’s turned down plenty of opportunities to cash in on the coincidence.
In 2000, after the former astronaut’s alma mater, Purdue University, won the Big Ten football championship, Armstrong got a voice mail inviting him and his wife on an all-expenses-paid trip to the 2001 Rose Bowl.
The message said “they wanted to honor and recognize me for all the contributions I’d made to the university.”
In 2003, reporters called for quotes after the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on its re-entry.
In his spare time, Armstrong coaches youth soccer in Loveland in suburban Cincinnati. “Every year, the littler kids want to meet Neil Armstrong. They think the astronaut is going to coach them,” he said.
Boy Scouts also send letters inviting him to their Eagle award ceremony. Both he and astronaut Armstrong were Eagle Scouts.