- Fendell was Head of the Communications Systems Section, Flight Control Division at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Johnson Space Center on July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon.
- He graduated with an associate degree in merchandising from Becker College (Worcester, Massachusetts) in 1951.
- In 2009, giving the keynote address at Becker College's 221st commencement ceremony, Fendell described how he was assigned to learn the wiring of the Gemini spacecraft, despite having no engineering training. A superior instructed him to ring his desk with cardboard and to post diagrams of the fuses and circuit breakers. He went on to design consoles, to write operating procedures, and ultimately to project images from the Moon to Earth.
- Fendell filmed the Apollo 11 Lunar Module take off from the Moon.
- His awards and citations include: a Korean Service Medal; a United Nations Service Medal; a Gold Conduct Medal, National Defense Medal; and the Horzu (a West German television magazine) Golden Camera Award (1973).
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