CC to host former Apollo 13 engineer

Clarendon College will be hosting NASA Engineer Jerry Woodfill on Monday, April 14, for the motivational program “Failure is Not An Option.”

Woodfill has been employed with NASA in Houston for more than 48 years, and at the onset of the lunar landing program, he managed the spacecraft warning systems and was monitoring spacecraft Eagle’s descent when Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon.

On April 13, 1970, Woodfill was monitoring Apollo 13’s warning system when the vehicle exploded. His system was the first alert of the life-threatening malfunction depicted in the Tom Hanks-Ron Howard movie “Apollo 13.”

For his role in the rescue of Apollo 13, Woodfill shared the Presidential Medal of Freedom as a member of the Apollo 13 Mission Operations Team. Presently, Woodfill is the Technical Managers’ Representative for NASA JSC’s Software, Robotics and Simulation Division.

“We’re expecting that our students and the community will really benefit from this,” CC Dean of Students Tex Buckhaults said.

Mr. Woodfill’s auto-biographical program emphasizes his NASA experience and highlights his personal accounts of overcoming fear, frustration, and failure.  He will demonstrate the ultimate good that comes from perseverance.

Students and community members will have two opportunities to hear Mr. Woodfill speak on April 14.  He will first speak at 9 AM and then again at 10:30 AM in the Harned Sisters Auditorium on the Clarendon College campus.