When it came time, he instead went to study physics at Hastings College, a private liberal arts school where he set off in pursuit of his other boyhood dream: to be an astronaut.

After graduating cum laude in 1981, Anderson came to Iowa State University for a master's degree, graduating from the department of aerospace engineering in 1983.

On Thursday, a quarter-century later, Anderson found himself back in a lecture hall on the Ames campus, sitting on a far side of the classroom, two rows back, wearing the NASA astronaut jumpsuit he had dreamed about wearing as a boy.

Anderson now has a privileged designation on the ISU campus. It's one that will stick with him far beyond his lifetime or the lifetimes of everyone he knows. He is, and will always be, ISU's first astronaut.

As the clock approached 3:10 p.m., Anderson took a few moments to prepare for what would be the first stop in a tightly packed schedule of public events planned for his time back in Ames. During the next 48 hours or so, he would be given an ISU Distinguished Alumni Award, he would be inducted into his former department's Hall of Distinguished Alumni and he would serve as the keynote speaker for Veishea 2008 and grand marshal of the Veishea 2008 parade.

The experience was humbling and somewhat overwhelming for the man from Ashland.

"You know, I am a small-town kid, and I never expected that I would be in this position where people were giving me awards and honoring me and having me speak as keynote speakers and things," he said. "I am very proud and honored and a bit overcome."

Anderson's dream of becoming an astronaut began back at the age of 9. It was Christmas Eve 1968, and man was about to orbit the moon for the first time. To this day, he remembers vividly when the crew of Apollo 8 lost communication with earth as they disappeared behind the far side of moon. It was after the few minutes, when communication was restored, that something clicked inside Anderson.

"When I heard the little 'beeeeep' and they started to talk to the ground again, I was just so excited. I was so elated," he said. "To see that, to hear that, to feel that is when I thought, 'Wow, that would be really cool to do that someday.'"

That day, the day Anderson himself would be blasted into outer space, came 39 years later on June 8, 2007, when he was launched aboard Shuttle Atlantis en route for an extended stay on the International Space Station. He spent 152 days on the station, completing three spacewalks for a total of 18 hours outside the spacecrafts.

While aboard the station, Anderson's highlights included disposing of two massive pieces of space hardware, including an Early Ammonia Servicer that weighed more than 1,400 pounds. He also operated a billion-dollar robotic arm with which he was able to move around pieces of the station.

But with all that work also came play. On Halloween, he was the only crew member to dress up for the holiday, donning a black cape for the entire day ala Dracula.

"I was Superman every day," he said, mostly referring to the weightlessness of the International Space Station. "I flew to breakfast. I flew to lunch. I flew to work. I flew to the bathroom. I even flew when I was going to the bathroom."

During his public appearances at ISU, Anderson seemingly was always engaged in conversation. On the rare occasion that he didn't have someone around him, he quickly began working the crowd, shaking hands and introducing himself.

The trip for Anderson wasn't just about receiving recognition and awards, but also about spreading NASA's mission. He said his goal is to inspire youngsters to become engineers, scientists and mathematicians, all areas where he said the United States is slipping globally.

"If I inspire some kids along the way, then I have done a great thing," he said.

For those kids who already know they want to be astronauts, Anderson's message is one of perseverance. He tells them of his experience, where out of the 4,000 to 4,500 people who apply to be astronauts each time, only about 15 to 20 make it, he said.

"There is a lot of luck, there's a lot of timing, and I have to admit I was simply lucky," he said.

It took Anderson 15 years of applying to finally become an astronaut.

"You've got to keep trying," he said. "Work hard. You find what you love to do and you do it as best as you can, and maybe better than anyone else, and then you enhance your chances of maybe being selected as an astronaut."

It's easy for Anderson to tell people what five months in space will do to a person's body, but what it does to their mind is a different story. Looking down on earth from a vantage point 220 miles above the atmosphere is something that needs to be experienced to fully understand, he said.

"To see the earth that way - with no boundaries, no lines drawn, no guns pointed at each other - it's just extremely beautiful," he said during his lecture Thursday. "I wish everyone could be there for at least 10 minutes just to look out that window. I think we would all fight each other less, and we would all take care of what we have better."

During his lecture, Anderson described a smoky haze he kept witnessing over South America. It was an image that hit home for him, making him into a better steward of his own environment, he said.

Making statements like these and showing photos he snapped from space of the polar ice caps breaking apart was not meant to be an overt political message. When asked his opinion on the global warming debate, he took a step back. That's not who he is. In his words, he's just an "aerospace engineer astronaut, not an expert in the environment."

"I don't have all the data, but I do know that the way the sun behaves is cyclical, and the way the earth and universe behave, I believe, is cyclical. So I don't know whether there is global warming or whether there is not global warming," he said. "But what I can tell you is that when you look down and you see people burning parts of the earth so much that half of an entire continent is covered with smoke, it makes you wonder if we are doing the right thing."

As for Anderson's future, he doesn't know what his next assignment with NASA will be. He does know one thing: He wants to fly again.

William Dillon can be reached at 232-2161, Ext. 361, or William.Dillon@amestrib.com.