Wild Blue Yonder

After graduation from Texas A&M College, which took a little longer than he expected, Ellis Mooring spent the majority of his professional career as a principal engineer with The John Hopikins University Applied Physics Laboratory where he designed and evaluated electronics circuits for Navy surface-to-air missiles.

Mooring was born in Paris, Texas, and attended high school in Dallas. With his sites set on becoming a pilot in the still fledgling United States Air Force, Mooring enrolled as a member of the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets, Class of ’57.

Ellis Mooring spent two “tours of duty” at Texas A&M. He originally enrolled with the Class of ’57, but left school before graduating and spent four years in the U.S. Air Force as a radar specialist. He returned to A&M after his service duty and graduated with a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1963. As an Aggie senior, he received the Texas A&M Bolton Award for Outstanding Electrical Engineering Student and was president of Eta Kappa Nu, the A&M Electrical Engineering honor fraternity. Mooring’s MS degree is from The John Hopkins University. In addition to accruing more than 8,000 hours piloting a variety of aircraft, Mooring has also made 22 skydiving jumps. After retiring to College Station, he became a director of the local Harley-Davidson chapter of the Harley Owner’s Group (HOG).