Dates

• Majority of material found within 1963 - 2019

Extent

3 boxes Linear Feet (Patricia (Patty) Consolatrix Hilliard Robertson (March 12, 1963-May 24, 2001) was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and she grew up in Homer City, Pennsylvania in Indiana County. She extensively traveled abroad at an early age, and she was a popular student at Homer Center High School where she graduated from in 1980. In 1985, Patricia Hilliard earned her undergraduate degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). She went onto earn her medical degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1989. Her father, Harold Cooper Hilliard (October 27, 1927-August 5, 1999) was born in Homer City, and he was in the international construction business. Some of her childhood was spent in Indonesia, where her father Harold Hilliard had met her mother Ilsa Trouda Wilson Hilliard. See the permanent online exhibit dedicated to IUP's Astronaut: Dr. Patricia Hilliard Robertson. Dr. Patricia Hilliard was an avid pilot who accumulated more than 1,500 hours of flight time. She was a multiengine-rated flight instructor and also performed aerobatics. In 1995, Dr. Hilliard left Erie, Pennsylvania, where she was working for a family pediatrics practice, to pursue a fellowship in space medicine at the University of Texas and the Johnson Space Center in Houston. In 1998, NASA selected her for astronaut candidate training. Dr. Hilliard underwent intensive scientific training, and learned water and wilderness survival techniques. In Houston, Texas, she met and married pilot Scott Robertson. Dr. Patricia Hilliard Robertson, a NASA astronaut and physician passed away on Thursday, May 24, 2001 after sustaining injuries when her experimental plane crashed in in Manvel, Texas. She was 38 years old. Dr. Robertson was serving as a support astronaut for crew members presently on board the International Space Station. She was scheduled to take off on a shuttle mission the following year. Dr. Robertson was a passenger in a single-engine experimental plane owned and flown by Roy Mack Paul Adams, when the accident occurred at Wolfe Air Park in Manvel, Texas, about 20 miles south of Houston. According to a preliminary report by the Federal Aviation Administration, the plane crashed as Adams and Dr. Robertson were practicing landings. For more information about Dr. Patricia Hilliard Robertson, visit: https://www.iup.edu/archives/digital-projects-and-exhibits/patricia-hilliard-robertson/)

Language of Materials

English