Mourning Gladys West

Addison Pendegraft, section editor 

Gladys Mae West, the pioneer of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and a hidden figure of NASA passed away on Jan. 17, 2026, at her home in Alexandria, Va., at the age of 95. Gladys Mae West, an African American woman, went from growing up in the Jim Crow era of segregation to formulating cutting edge models of the shape of the Earth, which is crucial for GPS. 

West, whose previous last name was Brown, was born in rural Sutherland, Va.. Her parents owned a small farm in an area populated mostly by sharecroppers. Besides working on their farm, her mother worked in a tobacco processing plant, and her father worked for the railroad. She grew up helping around the farm, but her scholarly talent enabled her to embark on another path.  

At school, she graduated as valedictorian of her class and received a full scholarship to Virginia State College, now known as Virginia State University, a historically black college. She earned a Bachelor of Science in mathematics in 1952 and later a master’s degree in the subject. And though she never actually received a doctorate, she is often referred to as “Dr. Gladys West” in media and professional recognition, reflecting her honorary recognition and significant contributions to science. 

A year after she graduated in 1955, the same year as when President Dwight Eisenhower banned racial discrimination in hiring, West began working at what was then called the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia as only their fourth black employee.  

"There were three other Black professionals," West told NPR about her time there. West said that she was, “always doing things just right, to set an example for other people who were coming behind me, especially women.” 

At Dahlgren, she met Ira V. West, another Black mathematician on the base and in 1957, the couple got married and had three children together. There, West was greatly admired for her impressive ability to solve complex mathematical equations by hand. Eventually, she transitioned from solving those equations herself to programming computers to do it for her. 

"I strived hard to be tough and hang in there the best I could,” West said, reflecting her strong willpower. 

One of her first major projects was her contribution to the Naval Ordinance Research Calculator (NORC), an award-winning program designed to determine the movements of Pluto in relation to Neptune. Later in 1978, West was named project manager of Seasat, an experimental U.S. ocean surveillance satellite designed to provide data on a wide array of oceanographic conditions and features. This ended up being the first project to demonstrate that satellites could be utilized to observe helpful oceanographic data. 

West’s work on the Seasat eventually turned into the GEOSAT, a geographical device that was programed to create computer models of the Earth’s surface. These calculations were what made it possible to make a geoid, which is the irregular-shaped “ball” that scientists use to more accurately calculate depths of earthquakes, or any other deep object beneath the earth’s surface according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This geoid is what enables the GPS to make accurate calculations about any place on Earth. Like NASA mathematicians Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, West is often called one of history’s “hidden figures.” Which is the title of the book by Margot Lee Shetterly and later movie of a few of the many untold stories of African American women who helped with the Space Race. These are individuals, often Black women, whose insightful contributions to science went unrecognized in their time because of their race and gender. But fortunately, West’s contribution to the GPS eventually did get the formal recognition it deserved in 2018 by the Virginia General Assembly. That same year, West was also inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame and named one of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s 100 Women of 2018, a list designed to honor inspiring women worldwide. 

Yet, despite all the crucial and impactful work that West did involving its creation, she didn't really describe herself as one of the four billion users of GPS. When the National Public Radio affiliate asked about it in 2020, West said she used GPS on a "minimal" basis. "I prefer maps," she added.