One giant leap, with modesty - San Francisco Chronicle

The hero tag never felt right for Neil Armstrong. The first man to walk on the moon - he actually bounced on the dusty surface on July 20, 1969 - was an epochal figure in the annals of science, Cold War politics and human ambition and daring.

But he was exceedingly modest and shy for all the significance he embodied. After his moon walk (accompanied moments later by Buzz Aldrin), he retreated to a series of space agency and academic posts, preferring engineering tasks to public appearances. He gave few speeches and didn't write a book. He died on Saturday at 82.

Yet his moon walk remains a high water mark for the nation's space program. The Mars rover now at work on that planet may be a remarkable feat of engineering but it lacks the emotional impact of human arrival in a far distant place.

Armstrong was a former fighter jock who studied aeronautics and piloted test planes. Then NASA tabbed him for its hurry-up mission to get to the moon and show up the Soviet Union, which had launched the first man in space.

His steady temperament and all-around background made him an ideal astronaut. It also made him a genuine and timeless hero whose moon-landing words -"one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" will be remembered forever.