Nick T. Spark is an American documentary filmmaker and writer. Films he has written, directed or produced include '' Regulus: The First Nuclear Missile Submarines'' (2001) the

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

award-winning '' The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club'' (2009) and '' Right Footed'' (2015). In addition to being a contributing editor to ''Wings'' and ''Airpower'' magazines, his articles have appeared in the '' Annals of Improbable Research'', ''

Naval History Naval warfare is combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other battlespace involving a major body of water such as a large lake or wide river. The Military, armed forces branch designated for naval warfare is a navy. Naval operations can be ...

'', the ''Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society'', and ''

Proceedings In academia and librarianship, conference proceedings are a collection of academic papers published in the context of an academic conference or workshop. Conference proceedings typically contain the contributions made by researchers at the confer ...

''. People he has interviewed include President

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Ford assumed the p ...

, British Prime Minister

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

, Secretary of State

Colin Powell Colin Luther Powell ( ; – ) was an Americans, American diplomat, and army officer who was the 65th United States secretary of state from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African-American to hold the office. He was the 15th National Security ...

, disability activist Jessica Cox and numerous test pilots including Charles "Chuck" Yeager. In 2007 Spark was interviewed on National Public Radio, concerning an article he wrote about the USS ''Panay'' incident, and he appeared on PBS' History Detectives in 2011 as an expert on the Navy's World War II drone, the TDR-1. Spark's four-part article ''Why Everything You Know About Murphy's Law Is Wrong'' details the history of Murphy's Law. This article was later adapted into a short book ''A History of Murphy's Law'', exploring the genesis of the popular adage which apparently originated at

Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, California, Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino County and a souther ...

during the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

's Project MX981 to research high

g-force The g-force or gravitational force equivalent is a Specific force, mass-specific force (force per unit mass), expressed in Unit of measurement, units of standard gravity (symbol ''g'' or ''g''0, not to be confused with "g", the symbol for ...

issues in 1947–1949 under the direction of "The Bravest Man in the Air Force", physicist and medical doctor John Paul Stapp. Spark appeared on Japanese broadcaster

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

concerning the Law in 2000.

Career

Nick Spark attended University High School in Tucson, Arizona where his classmates included Congresswoman

Gabby Giffords Gabrielle Dee Giffords (born June 8, 1970) is an American retired politician and gun violence prevention advocate. She served as a member of the United States House of Representatives representing from January 2007 until January 2012, when ...

. He worked as a teen columnist for the

Tucson Citizen The ''Tucson Citizen'' was a daily newspaper in Tucson, Arizona. It was founded by Richard C. McCormick with John Wasson as publisher and editor on October 15, 1870, as the ''Arizona Citizen''. When it ceased printing on May 16, 2009, the dail ...

, and served on the board of a non-profit transportation museum Old Pueblo Trolley, Inc. In 1988, a research paper he published about a World War II mustard gas disaster in

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

, Italy won the Special Naval Award at National History Day. Subsequently, through Spark's efforts, the subject of his paper Stewart F. Alexander was recognized by the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army for his meritorious actions in the aftermath of that incident. Spark attended the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

as a Flinn scholar, from which he received a degree in creative writing, with Honors, with a minor in media arts. While at the University of Arizona, he made ''Just Puttering Around'', a 1992 documentary about octogenarian folk artist William Holzman,Tucsonweekly.com
/ref> for which the

National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), also known as the National Television Academy until 2007, is an American professional service organization founded in 1955 for "the advancement of the arts and sciences of televisio ...

awarded him a 1992 student Emmy Award. He then attended the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

's School of Cinema-Television where he received a Masters of Fine Arts degree (MFA) in film production. Subsequently, he received a second student Emmy Award and the Cine Golden Eaglebr>
both for the documentary ''Upholding the Promise'', a film about federal judges directed by Ted Iredell. He is also known for the film, "Right Footed" featuring Jessica Cox.

References

External links

*
Four Part article
detailing initial researches into the origination of Murphy's Law.
The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club
— documentary film website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Spark, Nick T. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people University of Arizona alumni USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni American documentary filmmakers American military writers American film editors