Author: Jerry Woodfill
Dates: August 7, 2008
Bio: For 44 years, Jerry Woodfill has been employed by NASA in Houston. He holds BAEE and BSEE degrees from Rice University which he attended on a basketball scholarship. At the onset of the lunar landing program, he managed the spacecraft warning systems so that he was monitoring spacecraft Eagle's descent when Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon. Likewise, on April 13, 1970, Jerry was monitoring Apollo 13's warning system when the vehicle exploded. For his role in the rescue of Apollo 13, he shared the Presidential Medal of Freedom as a member of the Apollo 13 Mission Operations Team His system was the first alert of the life-threatening malfunction depicted in the Tom Hanks-Ron Howard movie APOLLO 13. Universal Studios designated Jerry as a national media  spokesmen for the IMAX release of the movie Apollo13. 
  



Christian Ministry Background:

Mr. Woodfill has led or participated in lay witness trips to: Belize (1975), Guyana (1979), El Salvador, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Panama, and Honduras. He has often been a featured speaker at national Christian conventions throughout the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Central and South America.  His message has  focused on how prayer impacted the United States space program as well as his Christian testimony of conversion. 

He and his wife Betty have been members of several churches, both denominational and inter-denominational, as a result of supporting their son Matthew’s growth in the ministry.  They served several years in a local nursing home where Betty’s mother resided until her passing.  There, Jerry often conducted services, led choruses, or simply brought residents to and from Sunday morning worship.

As a result of visits to several prisons, Jerry founded prison fellowships of inmates through coordination with wardens.  As a result of this outreach, hundreds of men came to know Christ as Lord and Savior.

Jerry Woodfill has authored a number of Christian tracts and booklets as an outreach for Christ, mostly dealing with God’s work in the space program:  The booklet, WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO APOLLO 13 been  widely distributed throughout the NASA area since 1977 and has affected many lives.  He authored and published a book called: SPACE ACTS which details God’s hand in newsworthy events in space history such as the Apollo One fire, the Challenger Tragedy, and the Apollo 11 lunar landing.   His latest book is THE PROVERBS 32 MAN which he authored with his sons, Jared and Matt.  

Detailed Professional Background:

*Presently, Mr. Woodfill is the Technical Managers’ Representative (TMR) of the NASA Johnson Space Center’s (JSC) Automation, Robotics, and Simulation Division (AR&SD).  In this capacity, Mr. Woodfill is responsible for AR&SD’s technical, administrative, cost, and contractual coordination of the Engineering and Science (ESC) contract presently between JSC and the  Jacobs Engineering Corporation.  Among those projects and managers who Mr. Woodfill represents are Robonaut, a space robot designed to supplement astronaut on-orbit activities, a space “life-vest” worn by astronauts on the chest as a gas-jet powered rescue device should an EVA tether sever, and  AERCAM, a television camcorder type device outfitted with  gas-jets, a control and communication system such that crew members can view spacecraft exterior scenes close-up via television while operating AERCAM from a control station within the spacecraft cabin. 
*Mr. Woodfill has authored a number of technical papers and managed various NASA research projects during the course of his nearly 4 decade career with the space agency.   Among these are:
*The moderate temperature detector development, the Active Passive Airborne Multispectral Scanner, Orbiter Experiment Data Manager,  and the Advanced Autopilot Technical Monitor.
*In 1989, Mr. Woodfill innovated a new means of publishing NASA educational resources called the SPACE EDUCATORS’ HANDBOOK.  The project presently resides on the World Wide Web at http://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/  .  This work has resulted in many web awards such as 100 best Texas Web Sites from TEXAS MONTHLY,  Web Hall of Fame award, U.S.A. TODAY’s site of the week award, etc. 

*Finally,  Jerry Woodfill often speaks to educators and students in behalf of NASA.  His talks are inspirational and motivational in content.  Present as a student in Rice Stadium for President John Kennedy’s Space Race landmark speech, Mr. Woodfill recreates the message for educators, professional clubs, schools, and universities.  Recently he keynoted the opening of a Texas University’s Science and Mathematics Center presenting the “SPACE RACE” program.