A “hidden figure” of GPS development has passed away.
Gladys West, 95, died Saturday of natural causes, according to a family X post cited by National Public Radio (NPR). West “passed peacefully alongside her family and friends and is now in heaven with her loved ones,” the X post read.
West, a Black woman, went from a childhood in the Jim Crow era of segregation to an adulthood formulating pioneering models for the shape of the Earth—which helps inform the technology of global positioning systems (GPS) for navigation. But West didn’t really describe herself as one of the four billion users of GPS. When an NPR affiliate asked about it in 2020, West said she used GPS on a “minimal” basis. “I prefer maps,” she added.
West (then Gladys Mae Brown) was born Oct. 27, 1930 south of Richmond, Virginia in rural Sutherland, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. Her parents had a small farm, as well as other jobs. Most of the population of the region was made up of tenant farmers known as sharecroppers.
West initially expected her career would lead her to the farm, or to take on the work her mother had, at a tobacco-processing plant. School proved otherwise.
West became valedictorian of her high school graduating class, then went to the historically Black Virginia State College (now Virginia State University) on a full scholarship. She earned a bachelor degree, then a masters degree, of science in mathematics. She also taught in Virginia’s schools, which were racially segregated at the time, Britannica noted.
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. “There were three other Black professionals,” West told NPR. “We were respectful to the leaders and tried to treat them the way we wanted them to treat us, if we were in the same position.”
West stayed on the job at Dahlgren for 42 years, according to the Department of Defense (DoD). Her work includes participating in a 1960s study that showed the motion of Pluto is regular compared with Neptune, and foundational work that assisted with the development of GPS in the 1970s and 1980s.
“West used complex algorithms to account for variations in gravitational, tidal and other forces that distort Earth’s shape,” DoD stated. “She programmed the IBM 7030 computer, also known as Stretch, to deliver increasingly refined calculations for an extremely accurate model of the Earth’s shape, optimized for what ultimately became the GPS orbit used by satellites.”
West’s career was not widely known until the 2016 publication of the book “Hidden Figures” by Margot Lee Shetterly, and the Hollywood movie based on the book that same year. After then, however, awards mounted. The DoD said some of West’s accolades included:
- Induction into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame in 2018.
- The Webby Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021.
- The Prince Philip Medal by the United Kingdom’s Royal Academy of Engineering in 2021.
- The National Museum of the Surface Navy’s Freedom of the Seas Exploration and Innovation Award in 2021.
West was predeceased in 2024 by her husband of 57 years, Ira, who she met on the job at the Naval Proving Ground, NPR’s report said. The Wests had three children and seven grandchildren.
