Rockwell employee's legacy could shape future of Downey space center

Jessie Arnold was responsible for much of Rockwell’s community outreach. (Courtesy photo)

DOWNEY - The future of the Columbia Memorial Space Center may take a few cues from one former Rockwell employee.

John Perez worked as a photographer at Rockwell International in Downey, oftentimes documenting history as it happened. His career eventually led him to a spot on the Apollo Recovery Team.

Upon return from their mission, each Apollo capsule was retrieved from the ocean and returned to Downey. That is when Perez would step in – literally.

“When they brought it back to Downey, the minute they opened up the hatch, I was the very first one that went in, and I did all the photo mapping of everything,” said Perez. “Once I got all that done, they started taking it apart from the inside out.”

After Apollo, Perez transitioned to the shuttle program, and into public relations. And while he doesn’t exactly remember how or when, Perez would eventually meet Jessie Arnold, who was responsible for several outreach programs between Rockwell and the surrounding communities.

“So, all of a sudden, I used to go with when Jessie would have a program or project, I was doing public relations photography. So, I would cover all these things that would be out there with them and all over the community,” said Perez. “So, I was covering this and I thought, ‘This will be pretty cool to do, right?’

“So, some way or other and I can't exactly give you the exact moment of how it all worked out, but he came to me and said, ‘Hey, I want you to work with me. You know, if you could work full time doing this kind of stuff.’”

Perez says that Arnold had “passion.”

“He would be out in the community, and would see all the different shortcomings at the community at large… And he would see things that needed some kind of support, some kind of interjection of resources or whatever it could be. So, he’d get involved first there,” said Perez. “And then he'd come back and try to get the support from the corporation, which eventually, they started doing bits and pieces they would do... I mean, we're, we're talking not only financial resources; we're talking volunteer resources, we're also talking about physical resources.”

One program that both Arnold and Perez worked on included bringing students onto the Rockwell site for tours.

“We were able to work with not only Compton, Linwood, ABC School District, Pico Rivera, South Gate, we worked with a lot of those different school districts and we told them that we would like to bring their students in and teach them these courses,” said Perez. “The only thing was, how do you get the kids here? So, they were able to go back to their school districts, find the funding to allow the buses to bring them twice a week, and each one of the districts would bring them in, bring them to the gate. They would let them off, I would escort them in, then all the instructors would be out there. Then the instructors would walk up to an area where they would start doing the teaching and training.

“So, we did that twice a week. We averaged about 500 kids a semester.”

Arnold recently passed away in June at the age of 85. Perez is honoring his colleague’s memory by laying the groundwork for the same type of community outreach to begin once again, including – potentially - at the Columbia Memorial Space Center.

While nothing official has been agreed upon, Perez has already had some casual discussion with Columbia Memorial director Ben Dickow about how the museum could foster similar community relationships in the near future.

Dickow said “There are no new ideas out there.”

“We've spent, however many years here at the Space Center, refining and developing our outreach program for STEM education and in the community, and it seems like, all the time, I'm finding out, ‘Oh, yeah, we already did that when it was Rockefeller, North American or whatever,’” said Dickow. “So, it's just this sort of cyclical thing. Which makes me feel good that we're doing the right thing. Because obviously, it’s in the soil here that we're supposed to be doing this kind of work.”

Dickow suggested that the “corporate connection” wasn’t only likely, it may be a necessity.

“I think the part that John and I have talked about in the past, and something that I think is within the foreseeable future, is to really do that corporate connection part, to really sort of highlight the career pathways, because that's something that we tend to kind of stop when school stops. And I think that we need to start thinking about moving it farther into, you know, post school or secondary education,” said Dickow. “So that is absolutely likely, it's not just something that we want to do anyway to serve the community, but it's something that is on the tip of everybody's tongue when we're talking out there in not just in the community, but in corporate work, right? There's a huge gap in STEM workers right now, and corporate America is freaking out about not having enough people trained up for this kind of stuff. It's got to happen. There's got to be a cradle to career, right?”

He added that the space center needs to extend its reach.

“We’ve got this beautiful space here, people come in; we only have so much capacity, there are only so many buses,” said Dickow. “Even with [the upcoming expansion], we know that we have to get outside of our four walls, we have to do that community outreach, we have to show up at LAUSD, we have to show up at DUSD, we have to show up at YMCAs and things like that. Because not everybody can come to us all the time, so we can get the word out by going out.”

Dickow says it would take “resources and people.”

“Unlike what they were doing at Rockwell, they had a corporation behind them and they had the resources there. We always have to fundraise, right? This would be a program from the space center that would be supported by private donations through the foundation,” said Dickow. “So, if we could find that corporation - and honestly, the financial resources are not huge to do these things - but we just need that little spark, that little sort of push over the edge; or, it would take a partner, like school district or somebody who really wants to come in and sort of co-develop something that has resources and the kids.”

Perez says “We should be able to find the right tools and people that are willing to do these kinds of things.”

“It has to be within yourself to say, ‘You know, I really want to help,’” said Perez. “…There’s too many needs out there that we need to see if there’s a way we can kind of penetrate a little bit better.”