Human Computer: Katherine Johnson
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Date of Birth: August 26, 1918
Hometown: White Sulphur Springs, WV
Education: B.S., Mathematics and French, West Virginia State College, 1937
Hired by NACA: June 1953
Retired from NASA: 1986
Date of Death: February 24, 2020
What Did She Do for NASA?
In 1962, the United States decided to send people to the Moon. That was big news. Getting to and from the Moon would take a lot of work. As the U.S. space agency, NASA would have to solve many, many problems. So NASA created large teams to solve them.
Katherine studied how to use geometry for space travel. She figured out the paths for the spacecraft to orbit (go around) Earth and to land on the Moon. NASA used Katherine's math, and it worked! NASA sent astronauts into orbit around Earth. Later, her math helped send astronauts to the Moon and back. NASA could not have done these things without Katherine Johnson and her love for math!
Katherine is a brilliant student smart enough to skip grades second through fifth in school. Her backstory shows how smart, talented, and charming she was. By age fifteen, she was attending West Virginia State College. Here, Katherine impresses a brilliant and demanding professor, William Schieffelin Claytor, who creates special advanced classes for her and urges her to go to graduate school. She is asked to be one of three Black students to integrate West Virginia University’s graduate school. She attends the summer session but leaves the program when she gets pregnant. Eventually, she becomes a teacher.
Katherine’s path shows her constantly balancing her education, career, and family life. At a family wedding in 1952, a connection shares with her the promise of a career as a mathematician at Langley. Katherine’s husband is supportive, and the couple decides to take a risk and move with their three daughters to Newsome Park. Katherine quickly becomes successful at Langley due to her intelligence and charming personality. Due to her lighter skin and pragmatic attitude, Katherine has an easier time ignoring racism and getting along with her white coworkers than some of her other Black coworkers do.
In a time where women aren’t even allowed to attend editorial meetings, through persistence Katherine gets a report published in her name. As another example of Katherine demonstrating her incredible talents, John Glenn requests that she personally to check the work of the electronic computers. Katherine’s help on John Glenn’s mission has guaranteed her respect amongst her colleagues. She continues working at NASA and helps with the mission to get a man on the moon. She sees her career and the accomplishments of the human computers as proof that anything is possible.
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