John Ofenloch was born in Chicago, Ilinois and was raised there. He received his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering at Christian Brother's University in Memphis, Tennessee. When he graduated college, he accepted a job with North American Aviation in Downey, California. In Downey was the North American Aviation Space and Information Division which had the contract for the Apollo Command Service Module. Ofenloch's responsibility while he was out there was the Apollo Command Module Earth re-entry. His job was to make sure that the Command Module was capable of bringing the astronauts back safely to Earth. After he was through with the tests of the command module, he went to Brown Engineering in Huntsville, AL to work with zero gravity and the effects on the humans and the vehicle.