R.I.P. Joseph Longobardo & Rocco Petrone.

Amsterdam lost two distinguished native sons recently. While neither had lived in Amsterdam for some time, both were born and brought up there.

"FREDONIA -- State Trooper Joseph Longobardo, a 32-year-old Ballston Spa resident, died Sunday afternoon, almost three days after he was ambushed in the woods of western New York and shot in the leg."

Read the rest of the story here.

"LOS ANGELES (AP)—Rocco Petrone, who was director of launch operations at Kennedy Space Center in the 1960s and played a key role in the Apollo program that landed men on the moon, has died. He was 80.

Petrone, who later served as director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, died Aug. 24 at his home in suburban Palos Verdes Estates of complications related to diabetes, his wife Ruth said this week.

Born in Amsterdam, N.Y., Petrone graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1946. After serving in Germany, he worked on various missile programs, including the nation's first ballistic missile.

He went to work for the Army general staff at the Pentagon before transferring in 1960 to NASA's facilities at Cape Canaveral, Fla., now Kennedy Space Center.

Petrone took over planning, development and activation of all launch facilities for the Saturn rockets used in the Apollo program."

Read the entire obituary here.

Read NASA’s biography of Petrone.