Famous Women Engineers in History – Book 9: Mary Golda Ross – She Reached for the Stars
FREE to IEEE Members
Non-Members: $2.99
Mary Golda Ross drew on her strong Cherokee heritage, love of math, and training as an engineer to help improve the safety of the P-38 aircraft used in WW II; improve missile launches from submarines; lay the foundation for the Apollo missions; and outline the theoretical basis for travel to Mars and Venus. She also became an advocate for STEM education for Native Americans and young women.
IEEE-USA’s new and ninth book in the IEEE-USA Famous Women Engineers in History series, Mary Golda Ross: She Reached for the Stars follows Mary Golda Ross from her birth in Oklahoma, to her major bequeathment to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.
Ross was the first known Native American female engineer in the United States, and much of her research accomplished at Lockheed’s Skunks Works remains classified. The great-great-granddaughter of John Ross, the chief of the Cherokee Nation during the Trail of Tears (when the tribe was relocated to Oklahoma, and more than 25 percent of the tribe perished), Ross benefited from a school John Ross founded. She used her love of math to benefit the nation; and then to advocate for young women and Native Americans to focus on STEM education.
She taught at rural schools in Oklahoma during the Depression; went on to become a role model at an Indian School in Santa Fe; and joined hundreds of thousands of women who worked in the aircraft industry during WW II. Unlike most of the famous Rosie Riveters, Ross’ employer retained her after the war — Lockheed even sent her for additional education.
Ross’ role included researching and evaluating the feasibility and performance of ballistic missiles, and other defense systems — including the submarine-launched Polaris missile — and the Agena launch vehicle, which carried military, intelligence and civilian satellites to space. In 1961, she played a key role in authoring a NASA space flight handbook, outlining equations, graphs and charts critical for planning a manned mission to Mars and Venus.
After retirement, Ross spent close to 30 years talking to groups of young women and Native American youths, urging them to pursue math and other STEM subjects.
She has been honored in such diverse ways as a Google Doodle on her 110th birthday; a life-sized statue at the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City; a scholarship offered by the Society of Women Engineers; and her image on a U.S. one-dollar commemorative coin.
Historian Emily A. Margolis, Curator of American Women’s History at the National Air and Space Museum and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, was quoted in Bazaar: “She was the kind of person who would walk through a door and stick in her foot to make sure that it stayed open for others. Not only did she do all these amazing things in aerospace, but she did it at the same time that she was trying to make engineering, in general, more inclusive and welcoming to all.”
Mary Golda Ross: She Reached for the Stars is the ninth e-book in IEEE-USA’s Famous Women Engineers in History series. It is available for free at the IEEE-USA Shop for IEEE members; non-members pay $2.99.
Other books in the Famous Women in Engineering History Series include:
- Hedy Lamarr: Inventor Extraordinaire and Hollywood Star
- Edith Clarke, Trailblazer in Electrical Engineering
- Lillian Gilbreth, Transforming Work
- Kate Gleason, Leading the Way
- Judith Resnik, Engineer, Astronaut, American Hero
- Esther Conwell — Theorist and Mentor
- Willie Hobbs Moore – “You’ve Got To Be Excellent”
- “YY” Clark: ”Don’t Give Up”
IEEE-USA’s Famous Women Engineers in History series features women who opened the way for others in engineering through their courage, creativity, perseverance and achievement. The series was initiated, edited and produced by Georgia C. Stelluto, IEEE-USA Publishing Manager and Editor, IEEE-USA E-Books.
