Trailblazing in travel: The remarkable contributions of Dr. Gladys West to modern GPS technology

Whenever you use your smartphone or car to find directions from one location to another, you owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Gladys West.

West is considered a "Hidden Figure," akin to the Black women mathematicians like the late Katherine Johnson, who worked on computations for the U.S. military during the 1950s and 1960s, as highlighted in Margot Lee Shetterly's 2016 book and its film adaptation. She was pivotal in the development of GPS technology, but her contributions were only acknowledged in 2018 when she was inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame after a sorority sister uncovered her achievements.

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Dr. Gladys West was born in 1930 in the rural area of Dinwiddie County, Virginia, where her family managed a small farm. Although everyone contributed to the farm, West aspired to pursue other ambitions as well.

"I always told myself that I didn’t enjoy working from dawn until dusk in the sun, so I focused on excelling academically in all my classes," West recounted in a 2018 video interview with the U.S. Navy. The top two students from her high school received scholarships to the local institution, Virginia State College, and West ensured she was among those selected.

"In our schooling, we were segregated from the white students and had separate buses. Often, we received old, worn-out resources from the white school, including second-hand textbooks that were not new like theirs," West explained. "However, these challenges motivated us to strive harder since we had to overcome significant disadvantages from the beginning."

At the historically Black university, West focused on mathematics. After a few years of teaching, she returned to Virginia State College to pursue her master's degree in the same field. Upon graduating, she was employed in 1956 by the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division in Dahlgren, Virginia, becoming the second Black woman hired and one of only four Black employees at that time.

Her employment coincided with the naval base's acquisition of a new and notably large computer.

"They recruited mathematicians to operate this computer, yet we had no prior training or knowledge in computing. We had to quickly learn to program and code for this massive machine," West shares in the video. Before long, she was involved in the development of radio-frequency identification. She processed satellite data to accurately assess Earth's surface elevations and pinpoint specific locations.

"Creating an RFID involves extensive scientific computation, which serves as the database utilized in GPS. Those working on civilian applications learned to leverage the database we established, forming the foundational elements upon which GPS was constructed," West explains.

West met her husband, Ira West, during her tenure at Dahlgren, where he was one of her two Black male colleagues. They have been happily married for over 60 years and are proud parents of three children and seven grandchildren.

After dedicating more than 40 years to her work at the base, West retired in 1998. However, her thirst for knowledge didn't wane; she obtained a Ph.D. in public administration and policy affairs from Virginia Tech, even after experiencing a stroke. She continues to reside in Virginia.

"I have always been driven by the desire to embark on new ventures and accomplish tasks, as I tend to have my own opinions. I find myself a bit impatient with those who don't share my way of thinking," West states in the video.

In a 2018 press release from Air Force Space Command, West was recognized for her remarkable contributions to the Air Force space program when she was inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame. She was acknowledged for her role in a groundbreaking, award-winning astronomical study that demonstrated the "regularity of Pluto's motion relative to Neptune." This work enabled West to program an IBM 7030 "Stretch" computer, producing highly refined calculations for an accurate geodetic Earth model, or geoid, which ultimately supported the development of the Global Positioning System (GPS) orbit.

By 1979, she took on the role of project manager for the Seasat project, marking the first satellite to orbit the Earth that was capable of remotely sensing and monitoring the oceans.

In essence, the GPS technology we rely on today for navigation, whether it be for a quick trip to the supermarket or a cross-country journey, owes its existence to West's pioneering efforts.