MILWAUKEE — For Dan Gille, the memory of Apollo 8's historic Christmas Eve orbit around the moon in 1968 remains vivid.

What many Milwaukee residents may not realize is that a small piece of our community made that journey alongside astronaut Jim Lovell.

Lovell passed away at the age of 97 on Thursday.

"I remember distinctly when they orbited the Moon for the first time, was that Christmas Eve in 1968 and they read a passage from the Bible," said Gille, a committee member at the Milwaukee Scout Heritage Museum .

Lovell, who grew up in Milwaukee and attended the former Juneau High School, carried a patch from the Milwaukee County Council's Mikano Lodge aboard the Apollo 8 spacecraft.

"I was always very interested in the space program, and I thought that was just a remarkable thing,"

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