We'd Be Lost Without Her

My sister, Jeanie, grew up two years older and a mile into the air taller than me. She could see high above the crowds like nobody else, so she always picked the best friends. Since her days in kindergarten, Jeanie has chosen wisely.

It was the 1980's. Jeanie landed a job working at a credit union in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The credit union isn’t important (unless you happen to keep your money there). What is important is that the credit union is where Jeanie met Carolyn. Brilliant, soft spoken, huge smiling, all around generous Carolyn.

From the beginning, I was enthralled with their friendship. Both women are impressive in their own right, so of course I loved being around them. It was a privilege, watching them move through life. I learn so much from their examples.

Enter COVID. The pandemic that needs no introduction.

One random day in July 2020, we're talking as sisters do when Jeanie drops some knowledge: Carolyn’s mom’s biography is hitting the shelves any day now and she (Jeanie) has my signed copy. But, given the pandemic, who knows when we'll see each other, so she'll mail it to me, unless I want to wait who knows how long to pick it up.

I think, “Awesome. I love biographies. Can't wait to read it.”

Then I think, Wait. What? Carolyn's mom's biography?!

I strongly believe every person has a story worth telling, so that part didn’t surprise me. What did surprise--no, what stunned me--is that Jeanie had effectively just said that the (no-kidding) most laid back, soft spoken, kindest, most unassuming person on this earth had just published an autobiography.

I'm gonna need a minute.

Turns out Carolyn has been holding out on us. Her mom is an honest-to-God trailblazing superhero. She literally has changed the world for every person on earth.

My sister's friend (she's my friend too, though, just saying) is none other than the Dr. Gladys West.

So, who is Dr. Gladys West, you ask?

The brilliant American mathematician who, alongside Albert Einstein, is credited with a certain life-changing invention. I'll get to that momentarily. But first, a question for you.

Hidden Figures

Did you read the 2016 book by Margot Lee Shetterly that was adapted into the film, Hidden Figures?

If you did read the book, or if you watched the film, you've heard of Dr. West--and it's likely you never even knew her name.

I mean, I know Carolyn and even I didn't know about her mom ...

Seriously, shut the front door!

Gladys is among the “Hidden Figures” who performed major computing work for the U.S. military in the 1950s and ‘60s.

During an era before electronic systems.

As a woman.

And as an African American.

Working in the field of advanced mathematics.

Let that sink in. I'll wait.

I know. You're gonna need a minute. I get it.

Whenever you're ready, here we go...

2018

Dr. West was inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame. A ceremony in her honor was held at the Pentagon (yes, that one, located just outside of Washington, D.C.). Air Force Space Command Vice Commander Lt. Gen. DT Thompson presented the award.

Induction into the hall of fame is one of the Air Force’s highest honors.

Gladys was honored for "contribut(ing) significantly to mathematical modeling of the shape of the Earth."

Yep, you read that right. "Modeling the shape of the Earth." Don't know about you, but I can hardly wrap my head around answers the calculator on my phone spits out. I think that's magic. But modeling the shape of the Earth? That's beyond my comprehension.

Gladys' work, in which she developed satellite geodesy models, led to the creation of GPS. Yes, that Global Positioning System (GPS). Imagine putting that on your resume! Boom.

Introducing Carolyn's Mom

1930

Gladys Mae Brown was born into an African American farming family in a community of sharecroppers. She grew up in a rural county south of Richmond (the Virginia state capital). The place is Sutherland, Virginia, in Dinwiddie County. (If you have your cell phone handy, you can Google it. But were it not for Gladys, you couldn't.)

Gladys' mother toiled, long hard sweaty days, at a tobacco factory. Virginia made most of its early wealth from tobacco. Gladys' father was a farmer, another important contribution to this state. He also worked for the railroad, which itself changed how the nation handled transportation. Both parents gave of themselves, doing honest, hard, commendable work. But their work was backbreaking manual labor, and not what Gladys wanted for herself.

Growing up, Gladys clung happily to her deep and abiding faith. She loved and respected her parents, and she immensely enjoyed growing up alongside her siblings.

Grade school was something else. She recalls walking three miles, one way, to the little red school. There was one teacher for all students--spanning seven different grades.

She would not take a bus to school until she entered high school.

Regardless of any obstacles, Gladys believed education would be her way out. And certainly it was.

1948

Gladys’ high school awarded each year's top two graduates a full-ride scholarship to Virginia State College (now formally Virginia State University), a historically black public university. So, you know Gladys got after it. She earned top honors: valedictorian of the Class of ’48.

Having excelled in all subjects, Gladys had a time of it, choosing which major to pursue at VSU. She was encouraged to consider science or math, because of their difficulty, in light of her most evident intellect and outstanding capability. Ultimately she chose mathematics--a subject then studied almost exclusively by men. White men.

Gladys also became a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Her sorority, always significant to her, would prove invaluable in later years to the rest of us. It was her submission of a few words of biographic material, requested by the sorority for one of their newsletters, that helped unearth the truth about Gladys' groundbreaking work.

1952

Gladys graduated VSU with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. After graduating, she would find a rough road. Securing a job was not easy. She turned to teaching. She taught math and science for two years in Waverly, Virginia.

1955

Gladys graduated VSU with Master of Mathematics degree. After graduating this time, she briefly taught in Martinsville, Virginia.

Within a year or two her life would change, dramatically. And the world would be a few steps closer to more richly interconnected and navigable.

1956

This was the year during which Gladys became the second black woman ever to be hired by the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia (which now is known as the Naval Surface Warfare Center). She was one of only four black employees at the time. She worked as a programmer for large-scale computers at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (better known in the region simply as Dahlgren). She also served as the project manager for data-processing systems used in the analysis of satellite data.

Concurrently, Gladys earned a second master’s degree, this one in public administration from the University of Oklahoma. There's no quit in this woman. She's a powerhouse.

1957

While at the Naval Proving Ground, Gladys met and married Ira West, who also worked as a mathematician. (Spoiler alert: He’s Carolyn’s dad. Ira deserves more than a one-liner for his significant contributions, too, but this story is all about Gladys.)

1960 - 1979

Gladys participated in an award-winning astronomical study that proved the regularity of Pluto’s motion relative to Neptune. (I plan to ask her thoughts about Pluto being kicked out of Club Planet, but that’s a whole other story.)

Gladys' work included analyzing data from satellites--again, in the days when computers were the size of a house despite their minimal compute power (compared to today's cell phones, for example).

She put together altimeter models of the Earth’s shape. She became project manager for the Seasat radar altimetry project, the first satellite that could remotely sense oceans.

She gave freely of her time, reportedly working significant overtime a lot of the time. Her 'above and beyond' efforts cut her team’s processing time in half.

Gladys was recommended for a commendation in 1979.

Not a lot of commendations being handed out to women in those days, let alone to black women, let alone for this type of advanced thinking and program management.

Mid-1970s - 1980s

Gladys programmed an IBM computer to deliver increasingly precise calculations to model the shape of the Earth – an ellipsoid with irregularities, known as the geoid. Generating an extremely accurate model required her to employ complex algorithms to account for variations in gravitational, tidal, and other forces that distort Earth’s shape. Her impressive data analysis ultimately became the basis for the Global Positioning System (GPS). (Seriously, if you didn't earlier, Google GPS now and prepare to be awed.)

1986

Gladys published Data Processing System Specifications for the Geosat Satellite Radar Altimeter, a 51-page technical report from The Naval Surface Weapons Center (NSWC). The guide was published to explain how to increase the accuracy of the estimation of geoid heights and vertical deflection, important components of satellite geodesy.

This estimation was achieved by processing the data created from the radio altimeter on the Geosat satellite, which went into orbit on March 12, 1984.

In my small corner of the world, round about '86, my big sister meets and becomes fast friends -- lifelong friends -- with Carolyn. I'm keeping knowledge of my superstar parents' crushing to myself Carolyn. Yep, that one.

1998

While raising a beautiful family, Gladys continued to work.

Just imagine all the contributions...

When she reached the decision to retire at an age of 68, she made it so. And thus, in 1998, Dr. Gladys West stepped away from the helm. She'd given 42 years.

That entire time she gave her energy, her humor, her kindness, her humility, her levelheadedness, her friendship, and her brilliance.

To say Dahlgren benefitted from her efforts is the understatement of our lifetime.

Consider the circumstances she rose above.

Consider the intellectual capacity required.

Consider that the outcome of her efforts were, to Gladys and her cohorts, completely unknown.

Consider the bravery that was necessary for Gladys to be herself.

Consider the minds she changed just by being.

Consider the enormity of what she has accomplished.

Now consider that she is, far and away, the humblest human alive.

Dr. Gladys West changed the world, the way we see it, how we engage with it, how we understand and care for it, and navigate it. She did that with her brain. As a black woman in a white-male-dominated field.

Damn.

I mean, if you aren’t impressed, please explain yourself.

2018

At the age of 88, Gladys completed a Ph.D. in Public Administration from Virginia Tech via a distance-learning program with Tech’s School of Public and International Affairs.

And then she penned her biography. In it she included one, possibly two, sentences about this thing she did that impacted some people... and she called it “just doing her job.”

Albert Einstein and Gladys West. The two people credited with this tremendous leap forward.

And, as I shared in the introduction, this year she was induced to the hall of fame.

Today

Gladys and Ira live in King George County, Virginia. They’re still happily married, happily retired, happily walking in faith, and the proud parents of three children (including Carolyn), and seven grandchildren.

Whenever the pandemic ends, I’m getting in my car, following the GPS prompts that’ll bring my car and me a few hours south to her part of the state. And when I get there, I’m gonna celebrate that woman like she’s a goddess. Because, people, she is.

Dr. Gladys West raised three children, with the help of a loving spouse (both of whom set an incredible example), all while juggling work and furthering her education.

So, in honor of her efforts, one computation at a time, here's a toast to the incomparable Dr. West. And here's to Caroline, for being an awesome person in her own right.

And this last shot? It's for my big sister, Jeanie, without whom I'd be lost in the dark.