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Dr. Gladys West: The "Hidden Figure" Who Pioneered GPS Technology
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If you rely on your GPS for directions, you can thank a mathematician whose little-known contributions to the mathematical modeling of the Earth recently earned her one of the U.S. Air Force's highest honors: induction into the Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame! Dr. Gladys West, like the "human computers" at NASA who became famous with the book Hidden Figures, began her career by performing the complex hand calculations required before the computer age. However, her greatest accomplishment was the creation of an extremely detailed geodetic model of the Earth which became the foundation for the Global Positioning System. Although GPS is ubiquitous today, West says that in the moment, she wasn't thinking about the future: "When you’re working every day, you’re not thinking, ‘What impact is this going to have on the world?’" she says. "You’re thinking, ‘I’ve got to get this right.'"

West was born in 1930 in a rural Virginia community of sharecroppers, but from an early age she had ambition to go beyond farm or factory work. "I 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," she remembers. "But then as I got more educated, went into the higher grades, I learned that education was the thing to get me out." West was valedictorian in her high school, which won her a scholarship to attend Virginia State College. There, she became one of only a handful of women studying mathematics. "You felt a little bit different," she later reflected. "You didn't quite fit in as you did in home economics." West taught for several years after graduation and then accepted a position at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Virginia in 1956 — only the second black woman they had ever hired — analyzing data from satellites.


At first, that meant math on paper: "We would come in and sit at our desks and we would logic away, go through all the steps anyone would have to do to solve the mathematical problem." But when computers entered the scene, it meant learning how to program — and being ready to catch the computers' mistakes. "Nine times out of 10 they weren't completely right," she recalls, "so you had to analyze them and find out what was different to what you expected." West was involved in an award-winning astronomical study in the early 1960s that showed how Pluto moved relative to Neptune, and her department head recommended her for a new role as project manager for the Seasat radar altimetry project, involving the first Earth-orbiting satellite that could remotely sense oceans.

The Seasat project became the jumping off point for further satellite modeling of the globe, and from the mid 1970s through the 1980s, West worked on programming an IBM 7030 “Stretch” computer with increasingly refined algorithms. She was then able to create an extremely accurate geodetic Earth model, even factoring in details like gravitational and tidal forces that slightly change the Earth's shape. This model would later become the foundation for the GPS satellite system, which is widely used today for countless applications from navigation to communication. However, after West retired from her post in 1998, her contributions to GPS were largely forgotten.

West wasn't idle in retirement, although a stroke temporarily slowed her down. While she was recovering, she set a new goal: "all of a sudden, these words came into my head: 'You can’t stay in the bed, you’ve got to get up from here and get your PhD.'" She became Dr. West in 2018, thanks to a remote studies program with Virginia Tech. Then, her story resurfaced after she wrote a short biography for an Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority event recognizing senior members of the group. Fellow member Gwen James, who had known West for fifteen years, was amazed to hear about her friend's career, and quickly started spreading the word: "I think her story is amazing."

In 2017, Captain Godfrey Weekes, then the commander of the Dahlgren Division, wrote an article for Black History Month about the "integral role" West played in the development of GPS, observing that "she rose through the ranks, worked on the satellite geodesy, and contributed to the accuracy of GPS and the measurement of satellite data. As Gladys West started her career as a mathematician at Dahlgren in 1956, she likely had no idea that her work would impact the world for decades to come." On December 6, 2018, West was inducted into the U.S. Air Force's Hall of Fame in a ceremony in her honor at the Pentagon; the Air Force hailed her as one of "the leaders of the early years of the Air Force space program." West says that she hopes her example will inspire another generation of female pioneers. "I think I did help," she reflects. "The world is opening up a little bit and making it easier for women. But they still gotta fight."

www.amightygirl.com

Dr. Gladys West: The "Hidden Figure" Who Pioneered GPS Technology

This trailblazing mathematician built the geodetic model of the Earth that became the foundation for GPS.
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Christopher Paul Gardner (born February 9, 1954) is an American businessman and motivational speaker. During the early 1980s, Gardner struggled with homelessness while raising a toddler son. He became a stock broker and eventually founded his own brokerage firm Gardner Rich & Co in 1987. In 2006, Gardner sold his minority stake in the firm and published a memoir. That book was made into the motion picture The Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith.
From Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Gardner never knew his father. He lived with his mother, Bettye Jean Gardner, and her family and in foster homes. He grew up with love and admiration for his mother, who was a schoolteacher.
His mother taught him some of the greatest lessons of his life and also taught him that in spite of where he came from, he could attain whatever goals he set for himself. After high school, Gardner enlisted in the Navy. After the military, Gardner went to San Francisco and took a job as a medical supply salesman.
Gardner set a clear career goal for the world of high finance. Without experience, connections, a degree, or pedigree, Gardner began applying for training programs at brokerages. When he was finally accepted into a program, he left his job in medical sales. But his plans collapsed when the man who offered him the training slot was fired, and Gardner had no job to go back to. Things got worse. He was put in jail for $1,200 in parking violations that he couldn't pay. His sons (Chris Jr.) mother left and Gardner fought to keep his son because, "I made up my mind as a young kid that when I had children, my children were going to know who their father was."
After entering a training program at Dean Witter Reynolds, Gardner’s job but couldn't make ends meet. He spent his evenings trying to arrange day care, find food and a safe place for him and his son to sleep. After spending nights in a locked bathroom at an Oakland subway station, Gardner persuaded Rev. Cecil Williams, founder of a new shelter program for the homeless at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, to let him and his son stay at the shelter. Gardner passed his licensing exam in 1981 on the first try.
He persevered, working the phones day after day to attract new clients. He and Chris Jr. got an apartment, and two years later he joined Bear, Stearns & Company. After becoming a top producer, first in San Francisco and later in New York, Gardner left in 1987 to establish Gardner Rich & Company, Inc., an institutional brokerage firm specializing in the execution of debt, equity and derivative products transactions. A self-made multi-millionaire, Gardner is intent on giving back to the communities where he conducts business because he has never forgotten his humble beginnings or the odds he has surmounted.
With a network of offices in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, GRC has grown by focusing on its commitment to provide quality service and excellent trade executions for clients. The firm executes trades for some of the nation’s largest institutions, public pension plans and unions. Under Gardner's directions, GRC has adopted a "give back to the community" program.
The Company donates 10% or more of the company's earnings toward school and educational projects in the communities it serves. Gardner's story of struggle, faith, entrepreneurial zeal, and fatherly devotion has catapulted him beyond the notoriety he has found on Wall Street. He has been featured on Television and film as well as being the subject of profiles in many newspapers and national magazines.
In 2002, Gardner received the Father of the Year Award from the NFI. He also received the 25th Annual Humanitarian Award from the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women (LACAAW), and the 2006 Friends of Africa Award from the Continental Africa Chamber of Commerce.
In 2008, he spoke at his daughter's graduation from Hampton University.

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What the republicans are doing, kinda reminds me of what some have tried to do here on NikeTalk, when the topic of racism arises....

“That’s one of the main ways this whitewashing of history happens. We don’t even call it whiteness. We call those heroes. Founding Fathers. Americans. Pioneers. We pretend whiteness has nothing to do with those laudable labels.”


www.usatoday.com

Republican state lawmakers want to punish schools that teach the 1619 Project

Lawmakers in at least five states filed bills that threaten to cut funding to schools that share curriculum about slavery, racism and U.S. history.
www.usatoday.com
 
The land where the Museum sits on the Lower East Side is part of what was once known in the mid-17th century as Land of the Blacks, a settlement of farms and homes owned by Black residents of Mannahatta. It was the first settlement of its kind in New York, where Black residents owned land. Check out The Tenement Museum’s free upcoming Tenement Talk on February 24th to learn more about African Settlements in the 17th century.
Later, in the 19th-century, the Black population of the Lower East Side made history again. Following the ratification of the 15th amendment in 1870, which declared that “The right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” twenty-one Black Lower East Siders were among the first to register to vote.
The African American Burial Ground is right across the street from 26 Federal Plaza, the Federal Building off Duane Street. I visit them often. I'm overdue now.

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Don never danced on the Soul Train Line, until the fine @$$ed Mary Wilson asked him to dance with her. This is the only clip of Don Cornelius dancing on Soul Train.

 
William Felton "Bill" Russell (born February 12, 1934) is an American retired professional basketball player. Russell played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. A five-time NBA Most Valuable Player and a twelve-time All-Star, he was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty, winning eleven NBA championships during his thirteen-year career. Along with Henri Richard of the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens, Russell holds the record for the most championships won by an athlete in a North American sports league. Before his professional career, Russell led the University of San Francisco to two consecutive NCAA championships (1955, 1956). He also won a gold medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics as captain of the U.S. national basketball team.
Bill Russell was born to Charles Russell and Katie Russell in West Monroe, Louisiana. Like almost all southern towns and cities of that time, West Monroe was a highly segregated place, and the Russells often struggled with racism in their daily lives. Once, Russell's father was refused service at a gas station until the staff had taken care of all the white customers. When his father attempted to leave and find a different station, the attendant stuck a shotgun in his face and threatened to kill him if he didn't stay and wait his turn. At another time, Russell's mother was walking outside in a fancy dress when a policeman accosted her. He told her to go home and remove the dress, which he described as "white woman's clothing". Because large numbers of blacks were moving to the West during World War II to look for work there, Russell's father moved the family out of Louisiana when Russell was eight years old and settled them in Oakland, California. While there the family fell into poverty, and Russell spent his childhood living in a series of public housing projects.
Charles Russell is described as a "stern, hard man" who was initially a janitor in a paper factory (a typical low paid, intellectually unchallenging "Negro Job", as sports journalist John Taylor commented), but later became a trucker when World War II broke out. Being closer to his mother Katie than to his father, Russell received a major emotional blow when she suddenly died when he was 12. His father gave up his trucking job and became a steel worker to be closer to his semi-orphaned children. Russell has stated that his father became his childhood hero, later followed up by Minneapolis Lakers superstar George "Mr. Basketball" Mikan, who he met when he was in high school.
In his early years, Russell struggled to develop his skills as a basketball player. Although Russell was a good runner and jumper and had large hands, he simply did not understand the game and was cut from the team in junior high school. As a freshman at McClymonds High School in Oakland, California, Russell was almost cut again. However, coach George Powles saw Russell's raw athletic potential and encouraged him to work on his fundamentals. Since Russell's previous experiences with white authority figures were often negative, he was delighted to receive warm words from his white coach. He worked hard and used the benefits of a growth spurt to become a decent basketball player, but it was not until his junior and senior years that he began to excel, winning back to back high school state championships. Russell soon became noted for his unusual style of defense. He later recalled, "To play good defense ... it was told back then that you had to stay flatfooted at all times to react quickly. When I started to jump to make defensive plays and to block shots, I was initially corrected, but I stuck with it, and it paid off."
One of Russell's high school basketball teammates was future Baseball Hall-of-Famer Frank Robinson.
Russell was ignored by college recruiters and did not receive a single letter of interest until recruiter Hal DeJulio from the University of San Francisco (USF) watched him in a high school game. DeJulio was not impressed by Russell's meager scoring and "atrocious fundamentals", but sensed that the young center had an extraordinary instinct for the game, especially in the clutch. When DeJulio offered Russell a scholarship, the latter eagerly accepted.[9] Sports journalist John Taylor described it as a watershed in Russell's life, because Russell realized that basketball was his one chance to escape poverty and racism; as a consequence, Russell swore to make the best of it.
At USF, Russell became the new starting center for coach Phil Woolpert. Woolpert emphasized defense and deliberate half-court play, concepts that favored defensive standout Russell. Woolpert's choices of how to deploy his players were unaffected by issues of skin color. In 1954, he became the first coach of a major college basketball squad to start three African American players: Russell, K. C. Jones and Hal Perry. In his USF years, Russell used his relative lack of bulk to develop a unique style of defense: instead of purely guarding the opposing center, he used his quickness and speed to play help defense against opposing forwards and aggressively challenge their shots. Combining the stature and shot-blocking skills of a center with the foot speed of a guard, Russell became the centerpiece of a USF team that soon became a force in college basketball. After USF kept Holy Cross star Tom Heinsohn scoreless in an entire half, Sports Illustrated wrote, "If [Russell] ever learns to hit the basket, they're going to have to rewrite the rules."
However, the games were often difficult for the USF squad. Russell and his African American teammates became targets of racist jeers, particularly on the road. In one notable incident, hotels in Oklahoma City refused to admit Russell and his black teammates while they were in town for the 1954 All-College Tournament. In protest, the whole team decided to camp out in a closed college dorm, which was later called an important bonding experience for the group. Decades later, Russell explained that his experiences hardened him against abuse of all kinds. "I never permitted myself to be a victim", he said.
Racism also shaped his lifelong paradigm as a team player. "At that time", he has said, "it was never acceptable that a black player was the best. That did not happen ... My junior year in college, I had what I thought was the one of the best college seasons ever. We won 28 out of 29 games. We won the National Championship. I was the [Most Valuable Player] at the Final Four. I was first team All American. I averaged over 20 points and over 20 rebounds, and I was the only guy in college blocking shots. So after the season was over, they had a Northern California banquet, and they picked another center as Player of the Year in Northern California. Well, that let me know that if I were to accept these as the final judges of my career I would die a bitter old man." So he made a conscious decision, he said, to put the team first and foremost, and not worry about individual achievements.
On the hardwood, his experiences were far more pleasant. Russell led USF to NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956, including a string of 55 consecutive victories. He became known for his strong defense and shot-blocking skills, once denying 13 shots in a game. UCLA coach John Wooden called Russell "the greatest defensive man I've ever seen". During his college career, Russell averaged 20.7 points per game and 20.3 rebounds per game. Besides basketball, Russell represented USF in track and field events. He competed in the 440 yards (400 m) race, which he could complete in 49.6 seconds. He also participated in the high jump; Track & Field News ranked him as the seventh-best high jumper in the world in 1956. That year, Russell won high jump titles at the Central California AAU meet, the Pacific AAU meet, and the West Coast Relays. One of his highest jumps occurred at the West Coast Relays, where he achieved a mark of 6 feet 9 1⁄4 inches (2.064 m).
After his years at USF, the Harlem Globetrotters invited Russell to join their exhibition basketball squad. Russell, who was sensitive to any racial prejudice, was enraged by the fact that owner Abe Saperstein would only discuss the matter with Woolpert. While Saperstein spoke to Woolpert in a meeting, Globetrotters assistant coach Harry Hanna tried to entertain Russell with jokes. The USF center was livid after this snub and declined the offer: he reasoned that if Saperstein was too smart to speak with him, then he was too smart to play for Saperstein. Instead, Russell made himself eligible for the 1956 NBA draft.
In the 1956 NBA draft, Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach had set his sights on Russell, thinking his defensive toughness and rebounding prowess were the missing pieces the Celtics needed. In retrospect, Auerbach's thoughts were unorthodox. In that period, centers and forwards were defined by their offensive output, and their ability to play defense was secondary.
However, Boston's chances of getting Russell seemed slim. Because the Celtics had finished second in the previous season and the worst teams had the highest draft picks, the Celtics had slipped too low in the draft order to pick Russell. In addition, Auerbach had already used his territorial pick to acquire talented forward Tom Heinsohn. But Auerbach knew that the Rochester Royals, who owned the first draft pick, already had a skilled rebounder in Maurice Stokes, were looking for an outside shooting guard and were unwilling to pay Russell the $25,000 signing bonus he requested. The St. Louis Hawks, who owned the second pick, drafted Russell, but were vying for Celtics center Ed Macauley, a six-time All-Star who had roots in St. Louis. Auerbach agreed to trade Macauley, who had previously asked to be traded to St. Louis in order to be with his sick son, if the Hawks gave up Russell. The owner of St Louis called Auerbach later and demanded more in the trade. Not only did he want Macauley, who was the Celtics premier player at the time, he wanted Cliff Hagan, who had been serving in the military for three years and had not yet played for the Celtics. After much debate, Auerbach agreed to give up Hagan, and the Hawks made the trade.
During that same draft, Boston also drafted guard K. C. Jones, Russell's former USF teammate. Thus, in one night, the Celtics managed to draft three future Hall of Famers: Russell, Jones and Heinsohn. The Russell draft-day trade was later called one of the most important trades in the history of North American sports.
Before his NBA rookie year, Russell was the captain of the U.S. national basketball team that competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. Avery Brundage, head of the International Olympic Committee, argued that Russell had already signed a professional contract and thus was no longer an amateur, but Russell prevailed. He had the option to skip the tournament and play a full season for the Celtics, but he was determined to play in the Olympics. He later commented that he would have participated in the high jump if he had been snubbed by the basketball team. Under coach Gerald Tucker, Russell helped the national team win the gold medal in Melbourne, defeating the Soviet Union 89–55 in the final game. The United States dominated the tournament, winning by an average of 53.5 points per game. Russell led the team in scoring, averaging 14.1 points per game for the competition. His Celtics teammate K. C. Jones joined him on the Olympic squad and contributed 10.9 points per game.
Russell's No. 6 jersey was retired by the Celtics on March 12, 1972, Besides the Celtics, Russell also wore number 6 at the University of San Francisco and for the 1956 USA Olympic Team.
He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975. Russell, who had a difficult relationship with the media, was not present at either event. After retiring as a player, Russell had stints as head coach of the Seattle SuperSonics (1973 to 1977) and Sacramento Kings (1987 to 1988). His time as a coach was lackluster; although he led the struggling SuperSonics into the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, Russell's defensive, team-oriented Celtics mindset did not mesh well with the team, and he left in 1977 with a 162–166 record. Russell's stint with the Kings was considerably shorter, his last assignment ending when the Kings went 17–41 to begin the 1987–88 season.
In addition, Russell ran into financial trouble. He had invested $250,000 into a rubber plantation in Liberia, where he had wanted to spend his retirement, but it went bankrupt. The same fate awaited his Boston restaurant called "Slade's", after which he had to default on a $90,000 government loan to purchase the outlet. The IRS discovered that Russell owed $34,430 in tax money and put a lien on his house.
Russell became a vegetarian, took up golf and worked as a color commentator, but he was uncomfortable as a broadcaster. He later said, "The most successful television is done in eight-second thoughts, and the things I know about basketball, motivation, and people go deeper than that." On November 3, 1979, Russell hosted Saturday Night Live, in which he appeared in several sports-related sketches. Russell also wrote books, usually written as a joint project with a professional writer, including 1979's Second Wind.
After spending about a decade living as a recluse on Mercer Island near Seattle, Russell rose to prominence again at the turn of the millennium. Russell's Rules was published in 2001, and in January 2006, he convinced Miami Heat superstar center Shaquille O'Neal to bury the hatchet with fellow NBA superstar and former Los Angeles Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant, with whom O'Neal had a bitter public feud. Later that year, on November 17, 2006, the two-time NCAA winner Russell was recognized for his impact on college basketball as a member of the founding class of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. He was one of five, along with John Wooden, Oscar Robertson, Dean Smith and Dr. James Naismith, selected to represent the inaugural class. On May 20, 2007, Russell was awarded an honorary doctorate by Suffolk University, where he served as its commencement speaker, and Russell received an honorary degree from Harvard University on June 7, 2007. On June 18, 2007, Russell was inducted as a member of the founding class of the FIBA Hall of Fame. Russell was also honored during the 2009 NBA All-Star Weekend in Phoenix.
On February 14, 2009, NBA Commissioner David Stern announced that the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award would be renamed the "Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award" in honor of the 11-time NBA champion. The following day, during halftime of the All-Star game, Celtics captains Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen presented Russell a surprise birthday cake for his 75th birthday. Russell attended the final game of the Finals that year to present his newly christened namesake award to its winner, Kobe Bryant. Russell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.
Russell was married to his college sweetheart Rose Swisher from 1956 to 1973. They had three children, namely daughter Karen Russell, the television pundit and lawyer, and sons William Jr. and Jacob. However, the couple grew emotionally distant and divorced. In 1977, he married Dorothy Anstett, Miss USA of 1968, but they divorced in 1980. The relationship was shrouded in controversy because Didi was white. In 1996, Russell married his third wife, Marilyn Nault; their marriage lasted until her death in January 2009. He has been a resident of Mercer Island, Washington for over four decades. His older brother was the noted playwright Charlie L. Russell.
In 1959, Bill Russell became the first NBA player to visit Africa. Russell is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, having been initiated into its Gamma Alpha chapter while a student at University of San Francisco. On October 16, 2013, Russell was arrested for bringing a loaded .38-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun to the Seattle–Tacoma International Airport.
According to a Thursday evening, July 17, 2014 Associated Press (AP) news story, it was stated that,: "Boston Celtics officials say NBA Hall of Famer Bill Russell is doing OK after collapsing during a speaking engagement near Lake Tahoe. Team spokesman Brian Olive says the 80-year-old Russell felt faint after the Thursday morning fall at the Hyatt Regency resort in Incline Village, Nevada, but was planning on returning home to Seattle this evening.
During his career, Russell was one of the first big earners in NBA basketball. His 1956 rookie contract was worth $24,000, only fractionally smaller than the $25,000 of top earner Bob Cousy. In contrast to other Celtics, who had to work in the offseason to maintain their standard of living (Heinsohn sold insurance, Gene Guarilia was a professional guitar player, Cousy ran a basketball camp, and Auerbach invested in plastics and a Chinese restaurant), Russell never had to work part-time. When Wilt Chamberlain became the first NBA player to earn $100,000 in salary in 1965, Russell went to Auerbach and demanded a $100,001 salary, which he promptly received.
In 2012, the city and the Celtics announced that a statue honoring Russell would be placed on Boston's City Hall Plaza. The design features a statue of Russell in game action with 11 plinths representing the 11 championships he helped the team win. The plinths will feature a key word and a related quote to illustrate Russell's multiple accomplishments. The Bill Russell Legacy Foundation, established by the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation, funded the project.
The Bill Russell Legacy Project artwork by Ann Hirsch of Somerville, Massachusetts, in collaboration with Pressley Associates Landscape Architects of Boston, was unveiled on November 1, 2013, with Russell in attendance.

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