Mary Golda Ross (August 9, 1908 – April 29, 2008) was the first known
Native American female engineer,
and the first female engineer in the history of Lockheed.
She was one of the 40 founding engineers of the renowned and highly secretive
Skunk Works project at
Lockheed Corporation. She worked at Lockheed from 1942 until her retirement in 1973, where she was best remembered for her work on aerospace design – including the
Agena Rocket program – as well as numerous "design concepts for
interplanetary space travel, crewed and uncrewed Earth-orbiting flights, the earliest studies of orbiting
satellites
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotop ...
for both defense and civilian purposes."
In 2018, she was chosen to be depicted on the 2019 Native American $1 Coin by the U.S. Mint celebrating Native Americans in the space program.
Early life and education
Mary G. Ross was born in the small town of
Park Hill, Oklahoma
Park Hill is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in southwestern Cherokee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 3,909 at the 2010 census. It lies near Tahlequah, east of the junction of U.S. Route 62 and ...
, the second of five children of William Wallace Ross Jr and Mary Henrietta Moore Ross.
She was the great-granddaughter of the Cherokee Chief
John Ross. A talented child, she was sent to live with her grandparents in the
Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ ''Tsalagihi Ayeli'' or ᏣᎳᎩᏰᎵ ''Tsalagiyehli''), also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It ...
capital of
Tahlequah
Tahlequah ( ; ''Cherokee'': ᏓᎵᏆ, ''daligwa'' ) is a city in Cherokee County, Oklahoma located at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. It is part of the Green Country region of Oklahoma and was established as a capital of the 19th-century ...
to attend primary and secondary school.
When she was 16, Ross enrolled in
Northeastern State Teachers' College in Tahlequah. She earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1928, at age 20.
She received her master's degree from the
Colorado State Teachers College in
Greeley in 1938,
taking "every
astronomy class they had."
Career
Ross taught math and science in rural Oklahoma schools for nine years, mostly during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
.
At age 28, she took the civil service examination to work for the
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...
(BIA) in
Washington, D.C., as a statistical clerk.
In 1937, she was reassigned as an advisor to girls at the
Santa Fe Indian School
The Federal Government established the Santa Fe Indian School (SFIS) in 1890 to educate Native American children from tribes throughout the Southwestern United States. The purpose of creating SFIS was an attempt to assimilate the Native American c ...
, an
American Indian boarding school in
Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In August 1938 she completed requirements for her master's degree from Colorado State College of Education at Greeley; she had attended classes in summers while she was a teacher. She took astronomy classes there in addition to reading extensively in her chosen field of mathematics.
She moved to California in 1941 to seek work after the US joined
World War II, on the advice of her father.
Ross was hired as a
mathematician by
Lockheed in 1942. While there she began working on the effects of pressure on the
Lockheed P-38 Lightning
The Lockheed P-38 Lightning is an American single-seat, twin piston-engined fighter aircraft that was used during World War II. Developed for the United States Army Air Corps by the Lockheed Corporation, the P-38 incorporated a distinctive twi ...
. The P-38 was one of the fastest airplanes designed at the time: it was the first military airplane to fly faster than in level flight. Ross helped to solve numerous design issues involved with high speed flight and issues of aeroelasticity. Although Ross preferred working on topics surrounding
interplanetary spaceflight, she later said that "If I had mentioned it in 1942, my credibility would have been questioned."
"Often at night there were four of us working until 11 p.m.," she recalled later. "I was the pencil pusher, doing a lot of research. My state of the art tools were a
slide rule and a
Friden computer."
After the war, Lockheed sent her to
UCLA for a professional certification in engineering. "She studied mathematics for modern engineering,
aeronautics
Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of air flight–capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. The British Royal Aeronautical Society identifies ...
and missile and
celestial mechanics."
It was unusual for a company that hired a woman for work during the war to keep that woman once the war ended; "Gold" Ross continued to work for Lockheed.
In 1952, she joined Lockheed's Advanced Development Program at the then-secret
Skunk Works, where she worked on "preliminary design concepts for
interplanetary space travel, crewed and uncrewed earth-orbiting flights, the earliest studies of orbiting
satellites
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotop ...
for both defense and civilian purposes."
She worked on the
Agena rocket project, and on preliminary design concepts for flyby missions to Venus and Mars.
[ "of a particular set of Mars orbital excursions was conducted by M. G. Ross"]
Most of the theories and papers that emerged from the group, including those by Ross, are still classified. As she told her alma mater's newspaper in the 1990s, "We were taking the theoretical and making it real." One of Ross' seminal roles was as one of the authors of the NASA Planetary Flight Handbook Vol. III, about space travel to Mars and Venus ...
"She was just one of the guys," said Norbert Hill, who met Ross when he was executive director of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society
The American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit professional association with the goal of substantially increasing American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, First Nation and other ...
. "She was as smart as the rest of them and she held her own."
In 1958, she appeared on the television show ''
What's My Line?.'' It took some time for the contestants to guess that she was the person who "Designs Rocket Missiles and Satellites (Lockheed Aircraft)."
Ross became a senior advanced systems staff engineer by the late 1960s, working on the
Polaris
Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude that ...
reentry vehicle, Poseidon and Trident missiles.
Later life
After retiring in 1973, Ross lived in
Los Altos, California,
and worked to recruit young women and Native American youth into engineering careers. Since the 1950s, she had been a member of the
Society of Women Engineers
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is an international not-for-profit educational and service organization. Founded in 1950 and headquartered in the United States, the Society of Women Engineers is a major advocate for women in engineering and ...
. She also supported the American Indians in Science and Engineering Society (AISES) and the
Council of Energy Resource Tribes.
At age 96, wearing her "first traditional Cherokee dress" of green
calico, made by her niece, she participated in the opening ceremonies of the
National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
Upon her death in 2008, she left a $400,000
endowment
Endowment most often refers to:
*A term for human penis size
It may also refer to: Finance
*Financial endowment, pertaining to funds or property donated to institutions or individuals (e.g., college endowment)
*Endowment mortgage, a mortgage to b ...
to that museum.
Awards and recognition
* Silicon Valley Engineering Council’s Hall of Fame, 1992
[
* Peninsula Woman of the Year, by the women's communications society Theta Sigma Phi]
* Achievement awards from the American Indian Science and Engineering Society
The American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit professional association with the goal of substantially increasing American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, First Nation and other ...
and from the Council of Energy Resource Tribes
* The San Francisco Examiner's Award for Woman of Distinction, 1961
* Woman of Achievement Award, California State Federation of Business and Professional Clubs, 1961
* Outstanding alumna awards from her first two alma maters
* Fellow and life member of the Society of Women Engineers
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is an international not-for-profit educational and service organization. Founded in 1950 and headquartered in the United States, the Society of Women Engineers is a major advocate for women in engineering and ...
.[
* In 1992, The Santa Clara Valley Section established a scholarship in her name.]
* Google Doodle on August 9, 2018
*Ross is pictured on the reverse of the 2019 Sacagawea Dollar.
See also
* Timeline of women in science
References
External links
*https://www.nps.gov/people/mary-g-ross.htm
Mary Ross
on "What's my line", CBS, Jun 22, 1958
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Mary G
20th-century American engineers
20th-century American mathematicians
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20th-century women engineers
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Women aerospace engineers
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Cherokee Nation businesspeople
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20th-century American women
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1908 births
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Native American women scientists
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