Mission Ready

Dr. Humboldt “Hum” Mandell and the Texas Exes are supporting Aerospace Engineering students through the Stamps Forty Acres Scholarship.

Time, Talent and Purpose

Dr. Humboldt “Hum” Mandell, BS ‘57, carries memories of a career that placed him in the control room at NASA when astronauts walked on the moon, of the great loves of his life and of The University of Texas at Austin, where it all began and where his philanthropy continues to make an impact. His legacy is shaped by timing, talent and a deep connection to UT.

Right Place, Right Time

In 1957, after earning his aeronautical engineering degree at UT, Hum spent three years in the U.S. Air Force before joining McDonnell Douglas, a global aerospace and defense company, where he calculated missile stress loads using calculus. It was a skill he learned at UT that “impressed everybody,” he says, and set him on a path toward a long and impactful career at NASA.

Hum felt lucky to have drawn the right straw, one of the lucky few to be in the control room for the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. “Everybody was watching,” he recalls, “when Buzz Aldrin was about to do his first EVA (extravehicular activity).” The room was dark, and everyone was transfixed, listening to mission control communicate with the astronauts.

Full Circle

After 40 years at NASA — a legendary career that included managing the Mars mission and advocating for NASA’s critical government funding — Hum found himself back where it all began. He volunteered for the next 20 years, teaching aerospace engineering at the Center for Space Research in the Cockrell School of Engineering. During his time back on campus, he noticed something was missing. Not one Forty Acres Scholar had come from aerospace engineering.

“It was just the right time,” he says. “For all of it.”

Hum Mandell

He helped change that by supporting the Stamps Forty Acres Scholarship, a premier full-ride award based on merit and administered by Texas Exes. The scholarship is jointly funded by the Stamps Scholars Program and matching donors like Hum, whose contributions expand opportunities for exceptional students. Recipients are selected through a comprehensive review and interview process.

After that process, Hum was matched with aerospace engineering major Jackson Bellard through the scholarship’s 1:1 matching partnership, which allows each donor to designate a field of study for their award.