{"id":76283,"date":"2026-01-21T19:14:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T19:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2026\/01\/21\/hidden-figure-gladys-west-gps-pioneer-and-navy-civilian-dies-at-95\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:31:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:31:40","slug":"hidden-figure-gladys-west-gps-pioneer-and-navy-civilian-dies-at-95","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/veterans\/military-history\/2026\/01\/21\/hidden-figure-gladys-west-gps-pioneer-and-navy-civilian-dies-at-95\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Hidden Figure\u2019 Gladys West, GPS pioneer and Navy civilian, dies at 95"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gladys Mae West, whose mathematical work became the integral foundation for modern GPS, has died. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">West, surrounded by family and friends, passed away peacefully on Jan. 17. She was 95.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Born in rural Dinwiddie County, Virginia, in 1930, West sought to leave her family farm from the beginning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI guess I found that a little bit contrary to what I had in my mind of where I wanted to go,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-43812053\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-43812053\">she told the BBC in 2018<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For most living in the Jim Crow South, career options were limited, but West didn\u2019t want to stay and pick tobacco, corn or cotton for a living \u2014 or work in the nearby factory beating tobacco leaves into pieces for cigarettes and pipes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stlamerican.com\/news\/columnists\/bernie-hayes\/gladys-mae-west-another-hidden-figure\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.stlamerican.com\/news\/columnists\/bernie-hayes\/gladys-mae-west-another-hidden-figure\/\">\u201chidden figures\u201d<\/a> in American history, West\u2019s mind took her far from her life in rural Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI thought at first I needed to go to the city. I thought that would get me out of the country and out of the fields,\u201d she told the BBC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBut then as I got more educated, went into the higher grades, I learned that education was the thing to get me out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8g10SxP8EwM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"Interview with Mrs. Gladys Mae West - GPS Technology\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the few female students to graduate Virginia State College with a degree in mathematics, West\u2019s genius secured her a position in 1956 at the Naval Support Facility Dahlgren, then known as the Naval Proving Ground. She was just one of four Black employees and only the second Black woman hired at the facility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of those Black employees, Ira, would become her husband for more than 67 years before his passing in 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a programmer for large-scale computers and then a project manager for data-processing systems used in the analysis of satellite data, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210610105910\/https:\/www.raeng.org.uk\/news\/news-releases\/2021\/june\/%E2%80%98hidden-figure-whose-mathematical-modelling-enable\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210610105910\/https:\/www.raeng.org.uk\/news\/news-releases\/2021\/june\/%E2%80%98hidden-figure-whose-mathematical-modelling-enable\">Royal Academy of Engineering<\/a>, \u201cWest began to analyze data from satellites, putting together altimeter models of the Earth\u2019s shape.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">West would serve as the project manager for the \u201cSeasat radar altimetry project, one of the first satellites that could remotely sense oceans,\u201d the academy noted. \u201cWest introduced innovations, cutting her team\u2019s processing time in half, and was recommended for a commendation in 1979.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Throughout the 1980s West was at the forefront of designing, developing, testing and then programming an IBM 7030 \u201cStretch\u201d computer to deliver increasingly precise calculations to model the shape of the Earth \u2014 an ellipsoid with irregularities, known as the geoid, according to the RAE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her pioneering algorithms and subsequent data ultimately underpinned the mapping functions of modern-day GPS. (While the mother of of GPS, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.war.gov\/News\/Feature-Stories\/Story\/article\/3700859\/navy-scientist-helped-develop-gps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.war.gov\/News\/Feature-Stories\/Story\/article\/3700859\/navy-scientist-helped-develop-gps\/\">West once professed<\/a> that she preferred a paper map to get around.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think that Dr. West is another one of those hidden figures in our military that play a critical role in the advancements that not only affected our ability to fire missiles accurately but also enable everyday life when you pick up your phone and you\u2019re trying to find something,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.war.gov\/News\/Feature-Stories\/Story\/article\/3700859\/navy-scientist-helped-develop-gps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.war.gov\/News\/Feature-Stories\/Story\/article\/3700859\/navy-scientist-helped-develop-gps\/\">retired Navy Rear Adm. Sinclair Harris said<\/a> during a 2023 ceremony honoring West. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite West\u2019s nonpareil accomplishments, <a href=\"https:\/\/fredericksburg.com\/gladys-west-s-work-on-gps-would-impact-the-world\/article_26e82f21-bb5a-5d76-9789-69a5039ad018.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/fredericksburg.com\/gladys-west-s-work-on-gps-would-impact-the-world\/article_26e82f21-bb5a-5d76-9789-69a5039ad018.html\">it was only after Gwen James<\/a>, a member of West\u2019s university sorority, read the short biography she had submitted for an alumni function in 2017, that the mathematician\u2019s contributions to the U.S. Navy and beyond came to light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite knowing one another for 15 years, James had no inkling of West\u2019s outsized impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGPS has changed the lives of everyone forever,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/fredericksburg.com\/gladys-west-s-work-on-gps-would-impact-the-world\/article_26e82f21-bb5a-5d76-9789-69a5039ad018.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/fredericksburg.com\/gladys-west-s-work-on-gps-would-impact-the-world\/article_26e82f21-bb5a-5d76-9789-69a5039ad018.html\">James told The Free Lance-Star in 2018<\/a>. \u201cThere is not a segment of this global society \u2014 military, auto industry, cell phone industry, social media, parents, NASA, etc. \u2014 that does not utilize the Global Positioning System.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">West retired from the naval facility in 1998 after more than 40 years of service, but she wasn\u2019t done. Despite suffering a debilitating stroke that affected her hearing, vision, balance and mobility, West went on to earn her PhD from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University at the age of 70.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAll of a sudden,\u201d she recalled to BBC, \u201cthese words came into my head: \u2018You can\u2019t stay in the bed, you\u2019ve got to get up from here and get your PhD.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But getting up to quietly fight for success was nothing new for West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe have made a lot of progress since when I came in, because now at least you can talk about things and be open a little more,\u201d West said regarding working women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBut they still gotta fight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>West\u2019s genius secured her a position in 1956 at the Naval Support Facility Dahlgren, then called Naval Proving Ground, where she worked for over 40 years. 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