Brief Biography

Prior to joining North American, John was employed by Hughes Aircraft Company of Culver City, California, where he served as a Field Engineering Representative with the USAF 30th Air Defense Command. He was assigned to work with the 343rd Fighter Group for several years, and was commended by the Air Force for his service. His duties included instruction and maintenance assistance to USAF technicians and pilots on the weapons control system in the F-106 Fighter/Interceptor. John had previous experience on these types of systems as a technical representative at Norton AFB in California, Kelly AFB in Texas, and Lockheed Air Service in California. He served in the U.S. Navy with the Occupation Forces in Japan, and with the Seventh Fleet during the Korean conflict.

He  joined North American Aviation in 1963, and was initially assigned to present Apollo spacecraft systems - familiarization briefings. He prepared and presented courses on the "Carry On" Ground Support Equipment (GSE)  used in the checkout & acceptance testing of the Apollo Command and Service Modules. He also conducted "Common Usage" GSE equipment courses for Grumman Aircraft engineering and test personnel who were assigned to checkout and perform acceptance testing of the Lunar Module (LEM) at Bethpage, NY. John presented these courses to North American Rockwell and NASA engineering and test personnel at the manufacturing facility in California, and at the launch complex in Florida. He was later assigned to conduct courses on the Apollo Telecommunications and Stabilization and Control Subsystems of the Apollo CSM   for Astronauts and NASA Flight Controllers. He worked with the training team, under the direction of Astronaut General Tom Stafford, to brief the Russian  Cosmonauts in preparation for the Apollo-Soyuz mission. He coordinated the development of programmed instruction textbooks for the NASA Flight Control unit.

He was Lead Instructor of the Apollo Electronics Systems Training Group, and  served as Supervisor of the Training Department  for a brief period. 

John was  a member of the National Management Association  (NMA) and active in this capacity at the  North American Rockwell Space Chapter. He was elected to the office of Secretary  of the Space Chapter, and later as Vice President.  As VP, he prepared  a management-training curriculum for the general membership, consisting of 1200 personnel.  He also conducted management development seminars for the Southern California Area Council of the National Management Association.

Awards and Commendations:

 1. Outstanding Performance Award for presenting 1000 hours of Apollo instruction. Presented by Astronauts Tom Stafford, John Young, and Gordon Cooper. Also shown receiving the award is Instructor Freeman Matthews.

2. letter of commendation from Astronaut Jim Lovell, Commander of Apollo 13.

3. letter of commendation from the Apollo Astronaut group

4. The Astronaut Personal Achievement Award (Snoopy pin) presented by Astronaut Al Worden.

John  hails from the southeastern US, living and attending school in the beautiful hill country communities of Central Tennessee, and the Tennessee Valley in Alabama. His technical training began in the United States Navy, and continued in  engineering and technical schools in Southern California. His permanent residence was in Orange County California during most of his career in Aerospace.  He now resides near where he grew up in the Tennessee Valley.

His retirement activities include  gardening and maintaining his retirement home near the  Tennessee River.  John's  hobbies are mainly in the area of communications media, with a special interest in computer science and  web publishing.  He is the publisher of this site (webmaster) with the dedicated support of several team members. 

He is a licensed Amateur Radioman, but has been  inactive for several years. John, as well as  several other members of the treaining team, credit Amateur Radio for launching their interests and career  in the field of electronics.