Ele Willoughby, PhD

I’m going to take part in #SpacetoberChallenge & see if I can post art for the daily space themed prompts this month, starting with “rocket”. Mary Golda Ross (1908-2008), known as Gold to her family, was a mathematician, aeronautical engineer, philanthropist & Cherokee “hidden figure” of the space race. Great-great-granddaughter of Chief John Ross, who was forced to lead his people on the Trail of Tears,
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#sciArt #MastoArt #womenInSTEM #indigineer #linocut

Oct 1, 2023 at 1:27pmWeb
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDOct 1, 2023

she attributed her success in math to the Cherokee tradition of encouraging equal education for boys & girls. She went to Northeastern State Teacher’s College in Tahlequah, Oklahoma & earned a BSc in math by the time she was 20. She taught science & math through the Depression then got her MSc & put her education to work to help Indigenous people as a statistician with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, until she was reassigned as an advisor to girls at the Santa Fe Indian School.

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Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDOct 1, 2023
When WWII broke out her father suggested she find a technical job in California. Lockheed Aircraft hired her as mathematician in 1942, troubleshooting the P-38 Lighting fighter plane (as shown). She knew already that her interest was in interplanetary flight, but didn’t mention it in 1942 for fear that her credibility would be questioned, but she was indeed farsighted. After the war Lockheed sent her to UCLA to study engineering & celestial mechanics.
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Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDOct 1, 2023
She was one of the 40 engineers selected to start Skunk Works, their Advanced Development Program, an in-house top-secret think tank. She was the only woman & only Indigenous person & much of her work there remains classified! It included preliminary design concepts for interplanetary travel, crewed/uncrewed space flights & the earliest plans for orbiting satellites.
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Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDOct 1, 2023

She worked on the Agena rocket, so important to the Apollo moon mission (shown) & was an author of the NASA Flight Handbook Vol. III about flight to Mars & Venus.

After retiring in 1973, she devoted her time to recruiting & mentoring women & Indigenous people to engineering. At 96 she participated in the opening ceremony for the National Museum of the American Indian & left the museum $400,000 upon her death.

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https://minouette.etsy.com/listing/634592877

Mathematician Aeronautical Engineer and Cherokee Hidden - Etsy

This Wood & Linocut Prints item by minouette has 26 favorites from Etsy shoppers. Ships from Canada. Listed on Jul 13, 2023

Show threadInarticulateQuilterOct 1, 2023
@minouette this woman’s story is new to me and I loved learning about her - thanks for sharing! Happy Spacetober!
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDOct 1, 2023
@inarticulatequilter thank you! That’s very much my goal: to gain her, and other women in the history of science, the recognition they deserve.