Gladys West, the mathematician and technologist whose work was key to the creation of the Global Positioning System (GPS), has died at the age of 95. She passed away on Saturday, January 17.
West was born as Gladys Mae Brown on October 27, 1930, in Sutherland, Virginia. Growing up in the Jim Crow South, she worked on a tobacco farm with her family, but also excelled in school. She was consistently top of her class and graduated from her high school as valedictorian. This earned her a scholarship at the historically Black institution, Virginia State College (now Virginia State University), where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics. It was there that she also became a member of the sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha.
She also earned an additional master’s degree at the University of Oklahoma in public administration.
She was hired in 1956 by the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia, which is now called the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division. The second African American woman hired at the firm, making one of four African American employees, she was tasked with figuring out a way to measure and model the shape of the Earth. She would collect and analyze data from satellites, and ultimately, those contributions led to the creation of GPS.
Still in awe of the accomplishment, she told the publication, Virginia Mercury, last year, “It never gets too old,” West said. “I am just so pleased that I was able to make a contribution. When I was working, I never imagined that the GPS would be used in the civilian world. I love seeing all the ways that it can be used and I probably have no idea how vastly used it is.”
It was also at Dahlgren that she met the man she would marry, another mathematician (and one of her two Black male colleagues) named Ira West. They married in 1957 and went on to have three kids and seven grandchildren. Ira passed away in 2024.
Reflecting on her time at Dahlgren, she told the BBC in 2018, “I carried that load round, thinking that I had to be the best that I could be. Always doing things just right, to set an example for other people who were coming behind me, especially women. I strived hard to be tough and hang in there the best I could.”
At 70 years old, West decided to further her education by pursuing a doctorate at Virginia Tech. She managed to complete her PhD despite suffering a stroke and other health challenges.
In 2018, the Virginia Assembly honored West with a resolution for her career and accomplishments, including a 42-year tenure at Dahlgren, her work with satellite technology, and her decision to continue furthering her education. She has also written a memoir with M.H. Jackson, called “It Began With a Dream.”
