Homer Hickam official Web site - October Sky/Rocket Boys, The Keeper's Son.

Miss Freida Riley was the inspirational chemistry and physics teacher who helped the Rocket Boys of the Big Creek Missile Agency to become successful. Before teaching at Big Creek, she was a student there, ranking first in her class. She was also first in her class at Concord College where she studied to become a teacher. As a teacher, Miss Riley was dynamic and tough. She held her students to the highest standard. When a student once told her he was doing his best, she summed up her teaching philosophy in two words, "Do better." Miss Riley died in 1969 from Hodgkin's Disease. To the last, she insisted on teaching even when it was necessary for her students to carry her on a stretcher to her classroom.