This article was written by Jason Schenck; Jason is in 8th grade at Crittenden
Middle School in Mt. View, CA
Jim Cockrell an Engineer who works at NASA Ames research center came to Crittenden
Middle School in Mountain View California yesterday to conduct an interview. The
interview was during third period Media class and it took the entire period. He comes
from a family of engineer's since his grandfather was an engineer.
He grew up in Homer, Ohio which is about a half an hour from Columbus, Ohio. The small
town has only two streets: Front Street and Back Street. The tow was only large enough
for these two streets. It also had only two hundred people in it. The school did not have
kindergarten so he went to live with his grandparents, who lived in Mount Vernon so he
could go to kindergarten. There his grandfather showed him how to make an engine out of a
nail, battery and wire wrapping. The nail motor spinning in circles fascinated him. It
was there where he got the inspiration to be an engineer.
When he completed high school he went to Ohio State University. He already knew what
he wanted to be, so he enrolled in engineering and math classes. He worked very hard and
was happy when he got his Bachelors of Science of Electrical Engineering. Since the
computer era was only starting in Ohio he moved to the Silicon Valley. So when he got out
of College he moved to Berkeley, CA. He moved into his sister's house and started looking
for work. NASA told him to come to Moffet Field for a job interview. He went there and
they gave him a job. He has worked on the Kuiper Airborne Observatory for 13 years.