• August 02, 1976
• Vol. 6
• No. 5

Lookout

Valerie Petrie at 15 wrote a letter to NASA inquiring about astronaut qualifications. "They kept sending me these patriotic little brochures," she recalls. "I said, 'Yes, I know all that, but I want to fly, and if you tell me what I have to do, I can get started now.' " Though she has yet to command a lunar module, she is at 26 a licensed airline pilot based in Los Angeles, flying for Western Air Lines since last February. "I know that if I ever run into any problems," she says, "it will not be because I'm a woman but because of my performance off the ground." The only child of actor Clint Walker, Valerie first flew at age 6. "They had to drag me from the plane. I never wanted to get off." At 17 she began lessons despite the expense and limited chances for a career. "Everyone kept hoping it was a phase I was going through." By 20 she was teaching flying. While doing research in Air Force planes for aeronautical magazine articles, she logged enough jet time—always difficult for civilians seeking pilot status—to qualify for Western's pilot school. On a story about police helicopter training, she met and married the instructor. On vacation in 1973 they flew across Africa in a single-engine aircraft. But life for the Petries isn't all up in the air. They ski, paint ("Most pilots have a little artist in their souls") and play chess. With pawns and bishops? No, with tiny models of war-planes, British against German.

Robert Portney, 23, says, without regret, that from the age of 4, "I had the violin crammed down my throat—that's the way it had to be." His haberdasher father predicted that each of his three children would solo with a major symphony before the age of 10. At age 9 Robert and his pianist sisters, Vicki, now 25, and Arlene, 26, played with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Since then he has received critical praise and a host of prizes and performed across the U.S. at up to $1,500 per concert. He also carries a full program at Harvard's Division of Medical Sciences, where he experiments with the use of heat to kill cancer cells. At the age of 12 Portney began weekend commutes to New York from Abington, Pa. to study music. Though offered scholarships to Juilliard and the Curtis Institute, he chose Harvard, financed by Leonard Bernstein, who had heard him perform. Robert practices three hours every morning, attends classes, spends five hours in the medical lab, grabs an occasional meal and practices again before bed at 2:30 a.m. On weekends he sees his "steady girlfriend," sails and practices still more. Torn between cancer research and full-time concertizing, he admits performing is his first love. One nice compromise will occur this fall when he performs a benefit series for the American Cancer Society.