Who is O'Dell from Rocket Boys: A Memoir and what is their importance? Rocket_Boys English & Literature O'Dell | Rocket Boys: A Memoir

O'Dell is a small and excitable boy with pale hair. He, like the other rocket boys, doesn't mind that Sonny's dad is the mine superintendent. O'Dell's father is a garbage man and has a garbage truck. O'Dell learns about or knows where he can find all kinds of potentially useful building materials and objects. He is the BCMA treasurer and in charge of rocket supplies. O'Dell assembles protective shields for the boys, made of baseball caps with clear squares of plastic as face guards, the materials rescued from some garbage, so that they are protected when they make rocket candy. It's O'Dell's idea to dig up cast iron scrap metal to raise money for rocketry. When Sonny gets a serious injury, slicing his wrist against some sharp metal, O'Dell recognizes that it is serious, that Sonny could die, makes a tourniquet and forces Sonny and the boys to walk out to get to Doc, the town doctor. O'Dell also has the scheme to dig up ginseng and sell it, which turns out to be very lucrative for them. When the boys graduate, O'Dell goes to college and then goes into insurance and farming.