Barbara Jaylee Montague Burley Mead (June 14, 1929 – September 14, 2012) was an American astronomer with a long career at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC empl ...

. She was also a noted arts patron, a major donor to theatres and cultural organizations in the

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

area.

Early life

Barbara Jaylee Montague was born near

Clayton, North Carolina Clayton is a town in Johnston County, North Carolina, United States, and is considered a satellite town of Raleigh. As of 2010, Clayton's population was 16,116, up from 6,973 at the 2000 census. By 2019 the town's estimated population was 24,887. ...

, the daughter of Roger Montague and Barbara Montague. Her parents ran a general store. She attended the

University of North Carolina at Greensboro The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG or UNC Greensboro) is a public research university in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system. UNCG, like all members of the UNC system, is a stand-al ...

(then a women's college), earning a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1951. She earned a master's degree in education from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1954, and completed a doctorate in astronomy at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

in 1970, studying under

Vera Rubin Vera Florence Cooper Rubin (; July 23, 1928 – December 25, 2016) was an American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates. She uncovered the discrepancy between the predicted and observed angular motion of galaxies by studyi ...

Career

Jaylee Burley Mead worked at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center from its beginning in 1959 (she had employee badge number 0010). She created a database of stars and galaxies which remains in use, and cataloging transient lunar phenomena (TLP). She was also active in the Goddard amateur theatre troupe. She also worked at the

National Space Science Data Center The NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive (NSSDCA) serves as the permanent archive for NASA space science mission data. "Space science" includes astronomy and astrophysics, solar and space plasma physics, and planetary and lunar science. A ...

, where she was assistant chief of the Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, associate chief of the Space Data and Computing Division, and coordinator of the International Ultraviolet Explorer's Regional Data-Analysis Facilities. In 1986, she was awarded the NASA Medal for Scientific Leadership. She also received the Women in Aerospace Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Goddard Award for Outstanding Service. Jaylee Burley Mead and her second husband founded the Mead Family Foundation in 1989, and were major donors to theatres and other cultural organizations in the Washington, D.C. area. Their gift to the

Arena Stage Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest, Washington, D.C. Established in 1950, it was the first racially integrated theater in Washington, D.C. and its founders helped start the U.S. regional theater movement. It is ...

was "the largest, single, private gift ever bestowed on an American stage," according to ''Playbill''. Jaylee Mead chaired the board of the

Studio Theatre A black box theater is a simple performance space, typically a square room with black walls and a flat floor. The simplicity of the space allows it to be used to create a variety of configurations of stage and audience interaction. The black ...

from 1994 to 2000. The Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theatre and the Mead Theatre at the Studio Theatre complex were named for them, as were several other performance spaces and programs. They also sponsored a lecture series on space exploration at the

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...

. Jaylee Mead served on the boards of the

Carnegie Institution for Science The Carnegie Institution of Washington (the organization's legal name), known also for public purposes as the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), is an organization in the United States established to fund and perform scientific research. Th ...

and the

National Children's Museum The National Children's Museum is a children's museum and Science museum#Science centre, science center in downtown Washington, D.C. It is intended to serve children up to age 12 and their families through interactive exhibits exploring science, t ...

Publications

Publications by Burley Mead included "Apparent Lunar Activity: Historical Review" (''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'' 1966, with Barbara M. Middlehurst), ''Chronological Catalog of Reported Lunar Events'' (NASA 1968, with Barbara M. Middlehurst,

Patrick Moore Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore (; 4 March 1923 – 9 December 2012) was an English amateur astronomer who attained prominence in that field as a writer, researcher, radio commentator and television presenter. Moore was president of the Brit ...

, and Barbara L. Welther), ''Statistics of the region of Lacerta OB1'' (NASA report 1969, with

G. V. Coyne George Vincent Coyne, S.J. (January 19, 1933 – February 11, 2020) was an American Jesuit priest and astronomer who directed the Vatican Observatory and headed its research group at the University of Arizona from 1978 to 2006. From January 201 ...

and Michele Kaufman), "Advances in ultraviolet astronomy: four years of IUE research" (NASA 1982, with

Yoji Kondo was a Japanese-born American astrophysicist who also wrote science fiction under the pseudonym Eric Kotani. He edited '' Requiem: New Collected Works by Robert A. Heinlein and Tributes to the Grand Master'' (1992), and contributed to '' New Des ...

and Robert D. Chapman), "Future of ultraviolet astronomy based on six years of IUE research" (NASA 1984, with Yoji Kondo and Robert D. Chapman), and ''Catalog of infrared observations'' (NASA 1987, with Daniel Y. Gezari and Marion Schmitz).

Personal life

Jaylee Montague married Gordon Burley; they divorced. She married again, to fellow scientist Gilbert Mead, in 1968. Gilbert Mead died in 2007. She died from heart failure in 2012, in Washington, D.C., aged 83 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burley Mead, Jaylee 1929 births 2012 deaths American women astronomers People from Clayton, North Carolina University of North Carolina at Greensboro alumni Stanford University alumni Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni 20th-century American astronomers 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American philanthropists 21st-century philanthropists Scientists from North Carolina 21st-century American women