Alum recounts experience at Rice and NASA

By Hugh Grier     9/9/15 3:07pm

Rice alumnus and NASA engineer Jerry Woodfill (Wiess ’65) discussed his time at Rice University and his experience as the Warning Systems Engineer during the Apollo 13 mission at a presentation on Sept. 3. The presentation was the first of this year’s Houston Spaceport Frontier Lectures series hosted at Rice.

Woodfill attended Rice on a basketball scholarship and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. He said that although he struggled significantly in college, he firmly believes that his failures are a key piece of his later success at NASA.

“I had a dismal career at Rice,” Woodfill said. “Not only was I a failure at athletics, academically I was not doing any better … I had the lowest grade ever made in MATH 300 at Rice. I was ready to quit, believe me. I was doing just desperately badly.”

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During his junior year, Woodfill said he was inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s 1962 “We choose to go to the Moon” speech made at the Rice stadium.

“It was so life changing for me,” Woodfill said. “It was that catalyst in my life that turned things around.”

Woodfill graduated after his fifth year at Rice and began working at NASA. He was among the hundreds of staff at the NASA Mission Control Center during the Apollo 13 mission that began on April 11, 1970, according to the NASA Mission Summary.

“We have Nobel Prize winners and famous athletes … but look what happened,” Woodfill said at the lecture. “It took 50 years! 50 years! I am now a notable alumni! Don’t give up! You can’t have been struggling with anything for a half-century like I did.” 

Woodfill was among those who shared the Presidential Medal of Freedom for the Apollo 13 Mission Team and continued to work at NASA for over 45 years afterwards. On the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission, Universe Today released his book “13 Things that Saved Apollo 13.”

Woodfill said he travels frequently for scholastic talks focused on his time at NASA and his book. The lectures aim to provide an engaging educational experience for both students and the general public on a range of issues pertaining to exploration and development of space, according to the Space Frontiers website.

David Alexander, director of the Rice Space Institute and professor of physics and astronomy, is the organizer of the event. 

“I’ve helped put these lectures together,” Alexander said. “We’ve got a good season going. We have a couple different kinds of lectures that are not just Spaceport lectures this fall. I’m lining up the program for the spring.”

Alexander said he is trying to allow broader access to the programs. The lecture on Thursday was live streamed online from Rice to the University of Hawaii.

“Streaming is free,” Alexander said. “I’d like to get these lectures well received in Houston and to get broader access to them … It would be great to get them around the country.”

Future lectures in the series will be on Oct. 22, Nov. 19 and Jan. 14. Details can be found at the Houston Spaceport Frontiers website, spacefrontiers.rice.edu.

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