Gladys West went from a one-room schoolhouse in rural Virginia to college and to working on planetary motions and modeling. “I really did like geometry,” she said of her high school years. “I fell in love with that.” Courtesy of the West family
Courtesy of the West family
She navigated segregation to become an esteemed mathematician — and today, her work helps billions of people navigate the world.
Gladys West, whose pioneering career contributed key elements to what became the GPS satellite system and was later acknowledged as a “hidden figure” of GPS, died Saturday at age 95.