From the Collection of Jack Clemons. 

Clemons worked with IBM as an engineer on the Apollo program from October 1968 until June 1974, including two of the most famous missions in NASA's history - Apollo 11 and Apollo 13. 

He specialized in developing procedures for reentry back into the Earth's atmosphere and directly trained astronauts.

Apollo 11, when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon, is considered one of the biggest accomplishments in the history of space exploration. Clemons was along for the ride and still remembers it vividly.

“My boss, his boss, and his boss were all getting interviewed, and the Japanese national network wanted to do an interview on reentry, so they sent me over,” he said. “I had been on the job less than a year, and here I am live on Japanese TV drawing my little pictures. It was kind of neat. It was an interesting time.”

Apollo 13 was much far nerve racking. But no matter how challenging or stressful the job may have been, Clemons said he knew his work on the Apollo program was history in the making.

“Sometimes you don't know if what you're doing is such a big deal until later, but we knew it,” he said. “Everybody involved knew it.”

In 2008, Clemons was featured in the Science Channel's six-part documentary series called “Moon Machines.” The series covered the various aspects of the Apollo program, from the space suits to the command and lunar modules. The film cast a spotlight on the people working behind the scenes, Clemons said.

“Watching the series was the first chance I had to really see the other people who worked on the program,” he said. “When you're working on it you're down here in the mire, and you're doing a lot of neat stuff, but you only have a vague sense of what else is going on.”

As the Apollo program began to phase out - the final three missions were scratched - Clemons turned his attention to the Space Shuttle program. From 1974 to 1984, Clemons worked with NASA to program all onboard software for the space shuttle.

By 1984, Clemons had been involved with 11 space shuttle missions and the pre-mission testing, and felt it was time to move on. He relocated to IBM's corporate headquarters in White Plains, N.Y., where he worked on the development of computer-aided software design tools for engineering and software customers. IBM eventually sold all of its federal work to Lockheed Martin in 1992. Clemons became the senior vice president of engineering and operations in the company and was responsible for the development of advanced air-traffic control systems in the United States and United Kingdom.

Clemons retired in 2005 and moved full time to Lewes, where he's started a new career as a writer.