George Robert Carruthers was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1939. He grew up on the South Side of Chicago. From an early age, Carruthers had an interest in astronomy. At the age of 10, he built his own telescope. But this did not translate well to his education. He had very poor grades in school. Despite this, he graduated from high school and went on to the University of Illinois. There, things began to fall into place and Carruthers excelled. He earned his B.S. in aeronautical engineering in 1961 and his master's in nuclear engineering in 1962. By 1964, he had achieved his doctorate in aeronautical and astronautical engineering in 1964.

After college, he began working at the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. There, he developed a telescope and image converter that was used to identify molecular hydrogen in space. His tools were used in the Apollo program and he received patents for his image converter in 1969. He invented the first moon-based observatory, the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph, during the Apollo 16 mission.

Carruthers worked with the Washington, DC community as well. He started a Science & Engineers Apprentice Program that allowed high school students to spend a summer working with scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory. He taught courses both at Howard University as well as the District of Columbia public school system. While doing this, he developed instruments for observing Halley's Comet in 1986 as well as the Space Shuttle Program in the 1990s.

Dr. Carruthers passed away in 2020. He had won numerous awards for his scientific research throughout his career. In 2013, he was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Barack Obama. He was inducted into the National Inventor Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio and is considered one of the 50 most important blacks in research science. His geospace research has made Dr. Carruthers a great American.

Patricia Roberts was born in 1924 in Mattoon, Illinois. Her father was a Pullman porter for the railroad. When she was very young, her father left the family and she was raised by a single mother. She proved to be an excellent student in high school and she earned a scholarship to attend Howard University in Washington, DC in 1941. While she was in college, she participated in one of the first lunch counter sit-ins in the United States to protest for equal rights. She also was the vice-chairman of Howard's chapter of the NAACP. She graduated summa cum laude in 1945 and was elected Phi Beta Kappa.

After college, she began her postgraduate work at both the University of Chicago and the American University in Washington, DC. She studied industrial relations. While working on her postgraduate degree, she was the Assistant Director of the American Council on Human Rights. She met William Beasley Harris, a member of the faculty at Howard University and they were married in 1955.

She became the director of Delta Sigma Theta, a national African-American sorority. Her husband, a law professor, encouraged her to go to law school and she began attending George Washington University. She graduated in 1960 as the top student in her class. After receiving her law degree, she spent a year working for the Department of Justice. Then, she returned to Howard University as a professor. While a professor, she worked in the community on civil rights issues. She became noticed by President John F. Kennedy and he appointed her co-chair of the National Women's Committee for Civil Rights.

In 1964, Harris became involved in politics. She was elected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention for the District of Columbia. She seconded the nomination for Lyndon Johnson to be the party's nominee for President. Working for the Johnson campaign, she made many political contacts. After the election in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Harris to become the first-ever African-American woman to be an ambassador. She served in Luxembourg for two years.

After her service, she returned to Howard to become the dean of the law school, the first African-American woman in history to hold such a position. She served for three years. After leaving Howard, she began working for one of the largest law firms in Washington, DC. She served on the boards of Scott Paper Company, Chase Manhattan Bank and the IBM Corporation.

In 1977, she left her law practice to become the first-ever African-American woman to be appointed to a presidential cabinet position. President Jimmy Carter selected Harris to be the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. This made her the first African-American woman to be in the line of succession to the presidency. She used the position to champion the plight of minorities and the poor. In 1980, she changed her position to the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. After the breakup of the department, she transferred yet again to become the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

After the Carter administration, she unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Washington, DC. She spent her remaining years as a law professor at George Washington University. She died of breast cancer in 1985. Harris was a ground-breaker in terms of race and gender. She was a champion of civil rights, equal protection and education. Patricia Roberts Harris was a great America.