Shelby Jacobs, Jr. was born April 27, 1935 in Dallas, Texas, into the poor family of an African-American pastor.  At age 8, his family moved to Val Verde, California, a city built to be an African-American resort community.  At that time, African-Americans were often banned from beaches and swimming pools, but in Val Verde things were different.  There was a public swimming pool that Blacks could use.

His father Shelby Jacobs, Sr. was the pastor of the church.  Being the son of a pastor brought great limitations to Shelby because most activities were considered a sin.  So, he focused on school, sports, and helping his family.  To help make ends meet for the family, he worked picking watermelons, cantaloupes, and potatoes.  

Shelby, bottom left with his brother, Horace, his parents, Shelby, Sr. and Rosie Lee (behind Shelby and Horace) joined by another couple from their church.

Shelby was a good student and enjoyed sports at school.  He played basketball, football, and ran hurdles for the track team. He was also elected class president of his graduating class which was unheard-of for an African-American student.

A few photos from Shelby's high school yearbook.

In 1953, Shelby graduated from William S. Hart High School in Newhall, California. It was at Hart High School, that he took an aptitude test which showed that he was talented in math and science.  His scores were so high that Shelby was offered a small scholarship for college.  

Shelby's senior class picture.

Shelby applied to the University of California at Los Angeles. His choices were to go into science or engineering. Growing up, he had so little exposure, he thought the only kind of engineer was someone who drove a train.  He was even told by his high school principal that there were no Black engineers and that he should take up a trade (something like carpentry or mechanics). Fortunately, Shelby did not take this advice and went into the Engineering program at UCLA.

Shelby studied mechanical engineering at UCLA and AVJC for three years but then was hired by Rocketdyne, a space program contractor responsible for building rockets for the Mercury, Atlas, Jupiter, and Thor programs.  Out of the 5,000 engineers employed by Rocketdyne, Shelby was one of only 8 who were Black.  

Shelby attended UCLA on scholarship.

Rocketdyne, where his career began.

In 1961, when President Kennedy announced the Apollo program, Shelby transferred to Rockwell International where he spent the rest of his career.  Shelby specialized in designing engine components (parts), hydraulics (the systems that move fluids throughout the engine), pneumatics (fuel systems), and propulsion (push or pull to drive an object forward) systems.

President John F Kennedy                                                The logo for  RI,  where Shelby worked for 30 years.

1965 was a momentous year for Shelby.  That summer, he spent two weeks volunteering to help register Black voters in Georgia during the civil rights movement.  His daughter, Michelle was born at the end of that year, making him a father.  But it was also the year that another life-changing event happened.  

Left:  The Voting Rights Movement.

Right: (L to R) Shelby, Sr., Michelle, and Shelby

In 1965, he was asked to adapt a camera system that could record the rocket stage separations for Apollo 6. He worked on the system for 3 years adapting, testing, and perfecting the installation of the cameras which took some of the most famous space footage of all time.  Just a few seconds of film from the launch on April 4, 1968, became one of the most iconic video images of NASA’s space race to land a man on the moon.

The design drawings for the camera system.          A photo from the camera system that Shelby designed.