You know Jack Black. He’s the high-energy, guitar-shredding, "Skidoo"ing force of nature from School of Rock and Kung Fu Panda. But if you’ve been hanging out on the internet lately, you might have seen a wild piece of trivia floating around: his mother was actually a rocket scientist who saved the crew of Apollo 13.
It sounds like one of those weird "fake news" facts designed to get clicks. Honestly, when I first heard it, I figured it was a stretch. Maybe she was a secretary at NASA? A math teacher?
Nope.
Who is Jack Black's mom? Her name was Judith Love Cohen, and her life story makes Jack’s Hollywood career look almost tame by comparison. We aren't just talking about a smart lady; we’re talking about an aerospace pioneer who literally solved life-or-death engineering problems while in active labor with the man who would eventually give us Tenacious D.
The Legend of the Hospital Room Breakthrough
Let’s get the big story out of the way first, because this is the one that usually goes viral. It was August 1969. While the rest of the world was still buzzing from the first moon landing, Judith was eight months pregnant and working on the Abort-Guidance System (AGS) for the Apollo program.
The day Jack was born, Judith didn't just head to the hospital and do some breathing exercises. According to her eldest son, Neil Siegel, she actually went to her office first. When the contractions got too intense to ignore, she didn't just grab her overnight bag—she grabbed a stack of computer printouts.
She was troubleshooting a specific, nagging problem with the logic of the backup computer system.
Hours later, from her hospital bed, she called her boss. She told him, "I’ve solved the problem." Then, almost as an afterthought, she added, "Oh, and the baby was born, too."
That baby was Thomas Jacob Black. Most of us just call him Jack.
Saving Apollo 13 from Earth
The system Judith worked on wasn’t just a "nice to have" feature. The Abort-Guidance System was the emergency "lifeboat" computer for the Lunar Module.
In April 1970, when an oxygen tank exploded on Apollo 13, the main guidance system was knocked out. The crew—Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise—were in deep trouble. They had to rely on the Lunar Module to survive and get back to Earth.
Judith’s work on the AGS provided the critical backup that allowed them to navigate home. If that system hadn't been rock-solid, those three men might never have made it back. When the astronauts later visited the TRW facility (where she worked) to say thank you, Judith was right there.
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A Life of Defying the Odds
Judith Love Cohen was born in Brooklyn in 1933. Back then, "career guidance" for women usually involved finding a husband or, if you were really ambitious, becoming a teacher. In fifth grade, she was already getting paid by her classmates to do their math homework.
She wanted to be an astronomer. But in the 1940s? Forget it. She couldn't find a single woman in the field to look up to. Her high school counselor actually told her to go to finishing school.
Judith basically said "no thanks" to all of that.
- She was a ballerina in the Metropolitan Opera Ballet company by age 19.
- She put herself through engineering school at USC by working as a junior engineer during the day and attending classes at night.
- She was often the only woman in the room. In fact, she reportedly went through her entire bachelor’s and master’s programs at USC without ever seeing another female engineering student.
Think about that for a second. The mental toughness required to be the "only one" in every single classroom and every single board meeting for decades is staggering.
Beyond the Stars: A Legacy for Girls
After retiring from engineering in 1990, Judith didn't just take up knitting or golf. She looked back at her own childhood and realized that little girls still didn't have enough role models in STEM.
She started a publishing company called Cascade Pass with her third husband, David Katz. When big publishers weren't interested in her ideas, she did it herself. She wrote a series of books called "You Can Be a Woman..." covering everything from engineering to paleontology to chemistry.
She sold over 100,000 copies of those books. She was trying to make sure that the next girl who was "the only one in the room" wouldn't feel so alone.
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What Jack Black Says About Her
Jack has always been vocal about his mother’s brilliance. He’s joked that he "didn't inherit any of her brainpower" and calls himself a "rock scientist" instead of a rocket scientist. But there’s a deep, obvious pride when he talks about her.
In 2019, he posted a tribute on Instagram with the caption: "Judith Love Cohen. Aerospace engineer. Author of children's books. Loving mother of four. Miss you mom."
She wasn't just a brain in a lab. She was a woman who didn't cook (except for a legendary spaghetti), didn't clean, and kept a "chaotic" house, but she encouraged her kids to be exactly who they were. Whether that was an actor/musician like Jack or a world-class engineer like his brother Neil.
Actionable Insights from Judith’s Life
We can learn a lot from the woman who gave us both the Apollo 13 rescue and the star of Nacho Libre:
- Work-Life Integration is Personal: Judith ignored the "rules" of what a mom or an engineer should look like. She solved math problems in labor because she loved the work.
- Representation Matters: If you don't see a role model, become one. Judith started writing books because they didn't exist when she was a kid.
- Persistence over Permission: She didn't wait for her high school counselor to approve of her dreams. She just went out and built the guidance systems anyway.
Judith Love Cohen passed away in 2016 at the age of 82. While her son continues to make the world laugh, her work remains tucked away in the blueprints of history—and on the surface of the moon.
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To really appreciate Judith's impact, you might want to look up her "You Can Be a Woman..." book series. They are still fantastic gifts for any young girl in your life who seems a bit too good at math for her own good. You can also dive into the history of the TRW facility in Redondo Beach to see just how much of our modern space age was built by women like her whose names rarely made the headlines.