Did You Use the GPS on Your Phone Today?

West was born in 1930 in Sutherland, a rural town in Virginia. Her family owned a farm, where there was never a shortage of chores. When she wasn’t working in the fields or helping with housework, West was feeding the cows and hogs or chopping firewood for the stove.

Though she had tremendous respect for the hard work it took her parents and neighbors to keep their farms running, West realized early on that farm life wasn’t for her. She much preferred the days she spent in her town’s one-room schoolhouse to the days she spent working under the hot sun.

As a kid, West never traveled more than a few miles from her home, but she always knew there was a big world beyond Sutherland—and she wanted to see it. The key, she understood, would be education. So she devoted herself to school, working as hard as she’d seen her parents work on their farm. Sometimes, she was so prepared for tests that she would finish in half the time her classmates did.

And her hard work paid off. West got a scholarship to Virginia State College. In 1955, she earned a master’s degree in mathematics—one of the few fields that offered women a chance at a well-paying job at the time.

Starting in the 1930s, an increasing number of women began working as mathematicians, or “computers,” as they were called. Their job was to do the calculations for all kinds of science and engineering projects—from missile attacks during World War II to rocket launches in the 1950s. These calculations were done by hand. After all, the machines we now know as computers were just being developed.

After college, West began applying for jobs in mathematics. In 1956, she was offered a position on a Navy base in Dahlgren, Virginia. She had never heard of the base before, but the job seemed exciting and paid double what she was making at the time as a teacher.

The next thing she knew, she was packing up and heading to Dahlgren.

Historically, Dahlgren specialized in weapons. But Dahlgren—and the world—was changing. In fact, it was a thrilling time to be working in STEM.

The 1950s ushered in a new era of space exploration. It was during this decade that America’s first space agency, NASA, was created. Money and brainpower were poured into new space technologies. The first satellites were blasted into space, followed by the first astronauts. By the end of the 1960s, humans were walking on the moon.

At Dahlgren, West found herself in the midst of this fascinating work. New satellites were beaming back all kinds of information about Earth and our solar system. She spent her days poring over this data. She analyzed the orbits of far-off planets, like Pluto and Neptune. It was groundbreaking science—and painstaking work, involving billions of calculations.

But West wasn’t just earning her place as a pioneer in space exploration and technology. She was also carving out a path in a brand-new field: computers.

In the 1950s, few people had ever seen a computer. Fewer still understood how to use one. But the massive amounts of data collected at Dahlgren could not be processed by human brains alone. So Dahlgren got its first computer. It became West’s job to figure out how to program the giant machine. (Back then, a computer that today would fit in your backpack took up an entire room.)

“It was exciting,” remembers West. “I was in a whole new world at Dahlgren.”

But while the late 1950s and early ’60s were a time of exciting discovery and innovation, they were also a time of segregation. A set of racist laws and customs known as Jim Crow made it legal for white people to tell Black people where they could and could not eat, go to school, live, and work.

West was reminded of this fact each time she stepped off the Navy base. When she ventured into neighboring towns with her husband, Ira West, they were met with “Whites Only” signs at gas stations and diners. When they tried to purchase a house near the base, they were denied several times because they were Black.

Segregation was not practiced at Dahlgren, but West did experience discrimination there. All her supervisors, and most of her colleagues, were white men. When she first started, only a handful of Black employees worked at the base, and only two were women. West was passed over for leadership roles and positions that required travel; hotels could refuse to give her a room.

Still, West remained motivated not just for herself, but for all those who would come after her. Though she should not have had to, she worked extra hard, forging a path for the next generation. “When you are one of the first to get an opportunity like I was given, you are a trailblazer for all who will follow you,” she says. “You must prove that you not only can carry out your responsibilities satisfactorily but go beyond what is expected. . . . Barriers must be broken.”

As was her way, West accomplished what she set out to do. She rose through the ranks at Dahlgren, earned the respect of her peers, and eventually became a leader, overseeing some of Dahlgren’s most cutting-edge satellite projects.

Much of the work that West did throughout her career was classified, which means it was secret. She wasn’t allowed to talk about it outside the base. Sometimes, she didn’t even know why she was doing certain work.

And this is how she came to help invent GPS without even knowing it.

In the 1970s, West took on an important job at Dahlgren: figuring out the shape of planet Earth. Earth is not perfectly round, and much of it is covered by water, so calculating its precise shape was a herculean task. It had never been done before.

West worked tirelessly, sometimes through the night. She checked and double-checked her equations. She combed through computer code looking for errors.

Though West didn’t know it, the work she was doing was for a new kind of navigation system that the military was developing. The goal was to be able to pinpoint precise locations anywhere on the planet.

“The work was hard, and the whole time I was thinking I had to be accurate, had to get it right,” West says. “But I was never thinking, ‘Oh, gee, we’re going to create GPS.’”

The military launched the first satellite of the GPS system in 1978. At the time, GPS was still top secret.

Then, in 1983, a tragic accident changed everything. A Korean Airlines plane accidentally flew into what is now Russian airspace (then part of the Soviet Union) and was shot down. If the plane had been equipped with GPS, the tragedy could have been avoided.

So, that same year, President Ronald Reagan declassified GPS technology, making it available to everyone.

In the coming decades, companies used GPS technology to create navigation systems for airlines and ships, then for trucks and cars, and finally, for phones.

Today, GPS has transformed our world in countless ways. It helps us get around. It prevents planes and ships from crashing and getting lost, aids in search-and-rescue efforts, and so much more. Without GPS, educational tools like Google Earth and games like Pokémon Go would not exist. 

For many years, West’s contributions to this life-changing technology were not widely known. Recently, however, she has been receiving more recognition. Dozens of articles have been written about her, and last year, she published her memoir, It Began With a Dream.

In 2019, West was honored at the seventh annual Strong Men & Women in Virginia History program. She says it was a moment she will never forget. “I was being honored by the same commonwealth that had once lawfully restricted my rights as a citizen through segregation and Jim Crow,” she says. “The state that had looked down at me was now looking up at me, or at least looking me in the eye, and saying, ‘Thank you.’”

Today, West is thrilled that her story has reached so many people. She hopes that it will inspire others to dream big like she did. “Work hard and you can do it,” she says. “And never give up.”

Still, proud as she is of her achievements, West doesn’t use GPS all that much. At 90 years old, she no longer drives, but when she did, she preferred to use paper maps to find her way. “I’m just old school, I suppose,” she says with a smile.

Scientists use GPS to monitor volcanoes and study storms in real time. This helps them predict when and where natural disasters will occur.

In South Africa, GPS trackers have been implanted in rhinos to protect them from poachers, who illegally hunt rhinos for their ivory horns. When a rhino strays from a certain area or starts to move rapidly, an alarm is triggered and a team is sent out to make sure the animal is safe.

After a natural disaster, GPS is used to map areas of destruction so that first responders know where to look for people who may be hurt or trapped. GPS also helps locate people lost in the wilderness.

Archaeologists study human history through artifacts, or objects, left by earlier civilizations. Many archaeologists today use GPS to locate and map out places to set up digs and look for these artifacts.

With GPS, we can easily figure out what is around us at any given location. Whether you’re looking for the nearest burger, library, or hospital, GPS-powered apps can find it for you in seconds.

This article was originally published in the March 2021 issue.