Dr. Jack Bacon is a notable Berkshire alum who graduated in 1972. Dr. Bacon attended Caltech and is a retired NASA engineer who worked on projects for the International Space Station. Today, Dr. Bacon travels the world educating others, giving speeches, and working on service initiatives. He is dedicated to his work and remains a major influence in engineering. From space exploration to projects in Kenya and Rwanda, Dr. Bacon’s story is truly fascinating.
Rohan Rost ’27 and I had the pleasure of welcoming Dr. Bacon to our radio show this January, where he shared his journey from Berkshire to his remarkable job with NASA and beyond.
Below are the highlights from our interview:
(Check out our full podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or Spotify. Just search The Hot Spot, Rohan Rost, and Thomas Berg.)
Thomas: “We’ll get right into it. Let’s start easy. What’s one thing you miss about Berkshire?
Dr. Bacon: “Oh, gosh. I had some really good friends there. Mostly, I miss the amazing mentoring and guidance that I got. I was… I was a bit of a nerd, and boy, the faculty has always been outstanding. I could ask any question and always get help. A lot of very special studies, a lot of counseling, you know, being a teenager.”
Rohan: “Can you walk us through the key steps in your career path and your time at NASA?”
Dr. Bacon: “Oh, wow, most of it’s luck. I studied math and science… chose Berkshire for its exceptional math and science… I was the first Berkshire student ever to go to Caltech.
I was really better at synthesizing what everyone else was telling me and communicating it. So I went to work for Xerox, and a few years in, we had the Challenger accident.
I was 30-something years old, saying, now what? … The Challenger got me thinking about all those brilliant people… I’ve always been interested in space… I think to myself, maybe I’ll toss my application in to be an astronaut.
Years went by… the final few hundred… 18,000 people applying.
One day at Xerox, I was in Texas… dropped by the Johnson Space Center… one of them had a job open that read exactly like my resume. And they said, ” When can you start?
So, happy as I was at Xerox, I was so lucky… they put me in the job at NASA, and I’ve been there ever since.
Ironically, the thing that really propelled my career… I learned Russian… and when we joined our space stations and our space programs together, I was one of two people in the agency that spoke Russian… I was trying to make my astronaut application look good, and the next thing you know, I’m integrating the U.S. and Russia on the space station.”
Thomas: “What advice would you give to a high school student who’s unsure of what they want to study, or what they want to pursue after high school?”
Dr. Bacon: “First question is find out what you like. It may not be what you want to study, but what do you like? Pop music, art, sports, and computer games. Dig deeper into how that shows up in your life. Be curious and follow a lead.
Just because you like watching football, you could get interested in injuries and sports medicine, and next thing you know, you’re an orthopedic surgeon, even though you didn’t know what you wanted to do. I’ve worked in a program where people followed their passion into the space program because they were curious and found something they liked. I can’t tell you what you like, but I can tell you, follow it with passion.”
Another big thank you to Dr. Jack Bacon for taking the time to meet with Rohan and me. It was a great opportunity to share memorable stories, and we look forward to seeing you back at the Berkshire School sometime in the future.
Thank you,
Thomas and Rohan