Astronaut and undersea explorer Williams still is defying limits

Adventurer writes of extraordinary life in science, medicine

Between time spent in outer space and at the bottom of the ocean, Dr. Dave Williams worked a ho-hum job as an emergency-room doctor.

Williams’ CV actually sounds like something a child might make up: businessman, author, scientist, physician, aquatic adventurer and astronaut. His life in adventure truly began around age 7, when he watched Alan Shepard become the first American launched into space.

With parents who nurtured his interest in science and technology, Williams followed a path that took him very far from his native Saskatchewan. He’s been to space twice, and his 17 hours of space walking are the most ever by a Canadian. He also lived and worked in an undersea research habitat. He’s saved lives in the ER and written some books for young readers about science and technology. Williams’ publisher recently urged him to write about his life for an adult readership. That assignment yielded “Defying Limits: Lessons From the Edge of the Universe.”

Williams returns to NASA this week to discuss his book and extraordinary life.

Q: In the book, you write your mother “invited me to the table of adulthood” by nurturing your curiosity for science early on.

A: Yes, she was great in the sense that she fostered our curiosity. My sister and I showed interest in science, so she went out and bought science books, chemistry sets, electronic kits. Both of our parents worked hard to fuel those passions. And that was a different era. My mother gave up her career as a nurse to raise her kids. But the most important element was that she and my father were willing to spend time with us: looking through microscopes, building a radio. My father got me started with scuba diving when I was 12. And it wasn’t always great. On a dive in Maine, somebody died. And he told my friend and I that it was a terrible tragedy, but you still have to learn from it and move on. That lesson, at such a young age, it held when I became an astronaut. The Challenger was a terrible loss. I wasn’t in the program at the time. But I understood what happened, and how NASA had to respond to it. When I became an astronaut, we lost Columbia — a tragedy beyond words. It’s not easy, but you have to continue.

Q: So both space and sea called to you?

A: Oh, yes. I mean, it was the ’60s. What a decade for exploration. Not only outer space but the undersea world Jacques Cousteau brought us. Even on a small black-andwhite TV. And National Geographic, with its spectacular images. It was an incredible decade. And I was told as a Canadian kid growing up it would be impossible to be an astronaut. So for a time, I focused more on the undersea world.

Q: Are there any weird similarities between those very different types of adventure?

A: They are quite different. But both are spectacularly beautiful. Both are potentially life threatening. The interesting thing about going underwater, we were just 60 feet. Not far at all. Obviously, if you go up there too quickly you’ll die of decompression sickness. But both have these stark contrasts. Like the beauty you see in the Earth from space, there’s a similar feeling lying on the bottom of the reef and watching the sun come up.

Q: There’s a harrowing moment in the book, and it wouldn’t have occurred to me had you not written about it. But

you administered CPR to a girl in danger shortly before you had a spaceflight. The pushpull between the instinctual need to help and the potential quarantine problems that arise from doing so must have been striking.

A: Yes, I don’t know how things like this happen in life. Weird journeys that cross at different points in time. As an emergency-room physician, I’ve resuscitated … I can’t count the number of people. It’s different, obviously, doing it on the street with no equipment. Add that it was 10 days before a spaceflight, it was an interesting moment.

Q: You don’t say.

A: (Laughs.) There was a moment I didn’t put in the book. But when I was training for my second spaceflight, I was in the park with my kids. And another kid fell off the monkey bars and broke his elbow. It was a bad fracture. It was a supracondylar fracture, which is right above the joint. And there was no pulse in his hand at all. So I had to reduce the fracture in the park, with no anesthesia, or he could have lost all function in his forearm. When there’s no pulse, those muscles can get damaged.

Q: At 64, is there a pull to return to space?

A: (Laughs.) We have to thank Sen. ( John) Glenn for that, right? At 77, he went up there. I like to keep my options open. Obviously, I’d love to go.