Gladys West

Hello, my name is Gladys West, and I want to share my story with you. My journey began on October 27th, 1930, in a small community called Sutherland, in Dinwiddie County, Virginia. I grew up in a family of sharecroppers, which meant we farmed land owned by someone else. From a young age, I spent many hours helping in the fields, but I knew in my heart that it was not the life I wanted for myself. I saw that the world was much bigger than our farm, and I believed that education was my one and only path to a different future. I dedicated myself completely to my schoolwork. I understood that earning top grades was my only chance to receive a scholarship for college, as my family could not afford to send me. I studied as hard as I could, and my hard work paid off. In 1948, I graduated from high school as the valedictorian, the student with the highest grades in the entire class. That achievement earned me a full scholarship to Virginia State College, and I felt like my dream was finally beginning to take shape.

At Virginia State College, which is now Virginia State University, I had to decide what to study. I chose mathematics. In the 1940s and 1950s, it was not common for women, especially Black women, to pursue a career in math or science. These fields were dominated by men, but I was not discouraged. I had discovered a deep love for numbers and the logic of solving complex problems. There was a unique satisfaction in taking a difficult equation and working through it, step by step, until I found the answer. My passion for the subject drove me forward. I poured all my energy into my studies and successfully earned my Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics in 1952. My thirst for knowledge wasn't satisfied, though. I decided to continue my education and, in 1955, I proudly earned my Master's degree in Mathematics from the same college. My determination to learn had prepared me for a future I couldn't yet imagine.

My life changed forever in 1956 when I accepted a job at the U.S. Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia. In those days, it was a very different world, and I was only the second Black woman ever to be hired there. My first role was as a “human computer.” This title might sound strange today, but back then, before modern electronic computers were widely available, complex calculations for military and scientific projects had to be done by hand. I, along with a team of other mathematicians, would spend our days meticulously solving long and difficult equations. It required incredible focus and precision. Soon, technology began to advance, and the base acquired giant, room-sized computers. One of the most powerful was the Naval Ordnance Research Calculator, or NORC. I was thrilled to learn how to program these massive machines, teaching them to perform the calculations that we used to do by hand. It was an exciting time of change, and it was at Dahlgren that I also met another talented mathematician named Ira West, who I would later marry.

My most significant work began when I joined a team that was studying the Earth using data collected from satellites orbiting our planet. My task was to use the powerful computers to build an incredibly detailed and accurate mathematical model of the Earth. You might think of the Earth as a perfect sphere, but it’s not. It has bumps and dips caused by mountains, deep ocean trenches, and the varying pull of gravity across its surface. My job was to write computer programs that could process vast amounts of satellite data to account for every one of these variations. The result of this work was a model called a “geoid,” which represents the true, complex shape of the Earth. I eventually became the project manager for the Seasat radar altimetry project. In 1978, the Seasat satellite was launched into space. It used radar to measure the height of the world's oceans with amazing precision, and the data it sent back proved that our mathematical models were correct. This highly accurate model of the Earth that my team and I developed became the essential foundation for a technology that would change the world: the Global Positioning System, or GPS.

After working at Dahlgren for 42 years, I retired in 1998. For most of my career, and for many years after, my contributions to science and technology were not widely known outside of my professional community. I was one of many “hidden figures” whose quiet, dedicated work made incredible innovations possible. My story finally began to gain attention in a surprising way. For an event with my sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, I was asked to write a short biography about myself. That short summary of my life and work started to circulate, and people became interested in the woman behind the technology that was now in everyone’s pocket. I was surprised and deeply grateful when I began to receive public recognition for my work decades later. A major honor came in 2018, when I was inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame, an award that celebrates people who have transformed space technology.

I believe that learning should never stop, no matter how old you are. Even after my long career and retirement, I still had a personal goal I wanted to achieve. In 2018, the same year I was inducted into the Hall of Fame, I completed my Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. Earning that degree was a moment of great personal pride. It is amazing to think that the careful mathematical work I did all those years ago now helps people navigate every day. It is in your family’s car, in the phone you use to find directions, and in the airplanes that fly across the globe. My story shows that if you work hard, stay curious, and dedicate yourself to your education, you can make a difference in the world in ways you might never have imagined.