Jack Parsons is remembered as a Rocket Scientist who helped start the Jet Propulsion laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. He is also remembered for his wild personal life as he was a follower of the cult started by Aleister Crowly. He experimented with drugs and participated in sexual orgies and whatever else it says on his Wikipedia bio.
According to Wikipedia Parsons was born on October 2, 1914. His Mother threw his father out of the house for visiting prostitues about 5 or 6 months later in March, 1915. Shamed, his Father moved back to Massachusetts where his parents were originally from. Parsons’ rich grandparents moved to California and raised him and his mother in a very nice neighborhood. Parsons spent a solitary childhood and read a lot. He became interested in mythology and then Science Fiction and futurist thinking around the age of 10-12. Parsons did poorly in school because it’s thought that he was dyslexic. (That doesn’t explain all the time spent reading.) He was bullied in school because it is said that he was effeminate.
At some point Parsons developed an interest in building rockets which he made with gun powder. He also studied occultism and devil worship. The family’s financial situation worsened during the Depression and Parsons was unable to attend college. His career is really complicated. Because of his talent for building rockets he was hired To design them. Later on He worked at a lot of other jobs especially after he was blacklisted as being a spy for the Israelis and could no longer find employment for anything related to government. Children of Divorce do tend to get bullied a lot.
Parsons’ relationships were pretty forward thinking and casual and strange. He lived for a while with his wife, her boyfriend and his girlfriend in a house. His girlfriend left him for science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.
Parsons died at age 37 on June 17, 1952 while building explosives for a movie set. His house blew up. The death was either an accident or suicide or murder. The police ruled that it was suicide. His mother committed suicide right after.
The next couple of examples of Children of Divorce are interesting for their interest in futuristic thinking and science fiction. They are from an older generation who would have grown up with extreme stigmatism surrounding divorce. They also would probably never become successful in the modern world because their behaviors would not be tolerated and they would be subdued by psychiatric treatment (with no discussion of growing up in trauma, of course).
The first exemplary child is science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. He was born Dec. 16, 1928. His parents divorced when he was around the age of 5 because his father transferred jobs to Reno, NV and his Mother wanted to remain in Los Angeles, CA.
Like many Children of Divorce, Dick didn’t complete college. He also married 5 times. Dick had 3 children. He suffered from symptoms related to schizophrenia which Wikipedia says was triggered by medication given to him for a dental treatment.
Spoiled Children of Divorce 