Mary G. Ross
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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 20th-century Native Americans 20th-century American philanthropists 20th-century women engineers 20th-century women mathematicians Women aerospace engineers American aerospace engineers American women engineers American women mathematicians American women philanthropists Cherokee Nation businesspeople Engineers from California Engineers from Oklahoma Lockheed people Mathematicians from California Mathematicians from Oklahoma Native American engineers Northeastern State University alumni People from Cherokee County, Oklahoma People from Los Altos, California Philanthropists from California Philanthropists from Oklahoma University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of Northern Colorado alumni 20th-century American women 20th-century Native American women 21st-century Native Americans 21st-century Native American women 1908 births 2008 deaths Native American women scientists 20th-century women philanthropists