Aerospace Engineer
Who is Mary Golda Ross?
Born in 1908, Mary Golda Ross was a Native American and member of the Cherokee Nation. Her childhood was filled with culture and history. After earning a master’s degree in 1938, she would eventually move to California three years later. She landed a job as a mathematician in Lockheed, working on the P-38 Lightning fighter plane. “The world is so technical, if you plan to work on it, a math background will let you go farther and faster,” Ross would say. She eventually worked her way through the ranks at Lockheed, becoming the only woman among the team at Skunk Works.
Educating was an essential part of who she was and her life’s work. She knew that her career was rarely encouraged in smart girls due to low expectations. She never forgot about her education either. She learned about aeronautical engineering at the University of California Los Angeles Extension School. Through these studies, Ross would qualify as a professional engineer. She was the first known Native American woman engineer.
Ross made contributions to the aerospace industry that would long outlast her. A lot of it is still confidential (that’s how important it is!). What we do know is that she contributed to NASA’s Interplanetary Flight Handbook, Vol. 3, which showed flight paths to Mars and even Venus. Ross retired from Lockheed in 1973, but her legacy lives on in the technologies she designed, the people she inspired, and the museums, libraries, and archives that have recorded her life and career.
3 Things We Love About Mary Golda Ross:
- She was a charter member of the Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Women Engineers!
- Ross supported the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI)!
- America Meredith, a citizen of the Cherokee nation, commemorated Ross in a painting entitled, Ad Astra per Astra! Take a look at it, smart girls!
Work Cited
Mary Golda Ross: Aerospace Engineer, Educator, and Advocate | National Air and Space Museum