West, became Gladys Brown’s husband in 1957 they recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Another Black mathematician on base, Ira V. Naval Weapons Laboratory in Dahlgren, Virginia in 1956, where she worked until retirement in 1998.Īt Dahlgren, West was the second Black woman hired and the fourth Black employee.
She continued to apply to government jobs and received her first offer from the U.S. In 1955, she received a master’s in mathematics from her alma mater. Instead, West taught mathematics in Martinsville, Virginia, while pursing graduate work. In a field dominated by white men in a segregated state, her efforts were initially unsuccessful.
GLADYS WEST FULL
As valedictorian of her high school class, she earned a full scholarship to Virginia State College (now Virginia State University).Īfter graduating in 1952, West applied for a host of government jobs.
Early on, West’s teachers encouraged her love of mathematics, which she pursued as a path out of agricultural work. Her parents owned their small farm and West picked corn, cotton, and tobacco from the time she was young. West’s modeling directly contributed to the ubiquitous use of the global positioning system (GPS) today.īorn on October 27, 1930, Gladys Mae Brown resided in Sutherland, Virginia in rural Dinwiddie County. Gladys West is a mathematician whose calculations and computer programming helped construct a geoid (a mathematical model of the earth’s shape).
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