Now that THS has completed fundraising for the bust of Robert A. Heinlein to be included in the Missouri State Capitol’s “Hall of Famous Missourians”, the next step is to decide on the wording that will appear on the accompanying plaque.

For example, here’s Mark Twain’s. And here’s Walter Cronkite’s (Yes, Cronkite was a Missourian too, and the two Apollo 11 commentators will be re-united again).

Remembering that you have to count the spaces and punctuation marks as well, what you get from looking at Twain’s is 965 total characters. We’ve been advised that probably 1,100 total characters is the practical limit.

So, we are hereby soliciting “Heinlein’s Children” for the suggested wording to be used on Robert’s plaque. We won’t pay you (except with “Thanks!”), we reserve the right to mix and match bits and pieces from several contributions, and to the degree we can remember we will acknowledge who we took bits and pieces from on our website once we settle on the final wording.

Which parts of Robert’s career would you choose to highlight? Remembering this is for Missouri, you do want to work in his birth in Butler and growing up in Kansas City. Certainly the Naval Academy appointment has to be there. We’d think the NASA Distinguished Service Medal as well. But after that? We look forward to seeing what people chose to highlight.

Please submit all suggested wordings (Remember, 1,100 total characters tops, including all spaces and punctuation marks) to . Using a subject title like “Heinlein Plaque Wording”, or something similar, would be helpful in allowing us to sort your contribution out of the inevitable spam. For now, let’s say a deadline of August 1, 2015 for submissions, tho we likewise reserve the right to extend that later, depending on how it goes (July 7th, his birthday, seems a little too quick).