Mathematician Essay

Christopher J. Colas

Pacific Oaks College

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Abstract

I spent some time looking for a mathematician of native American decent and came

across Mrs. Mary G. Ross. She is a Cherokee Indian and the great granddaughter of the famous

chief Ross of the Cherokee nation. Mary Ross was the first Native American female engineer,

she graduated at the top of her class in 1928 from then Northeastern University. She received her

degree in mathematics being one of the first in her family and tribe to do so. She is a descendant

of chief john Ross, the chief who fearlessly led his people during the trail of tears as the

government forced them off their land. She would go on to teach mathematics and science at her

local high school, while also served as a statistical clerk for the Indian bureau of affairs.

Mrs. Ross would then go on to serve and highly contribute in the field of aviation for the

united states air force. She would receive a master’s degree in mathematics and joined the

Lockheed aircraft Corporation in 1942. While working with the Lockheed corps she was a key

player in the building of fighter planes, her mathematical expertise would help her reach the

sound barrier on large planes like the p-28. She would impress so much with her contributions

during world war 2 the Lockheed corps offered to support her as she would become educated as

an engineer at their own college and the university of California right here in los Angeles. By

1949 when aerodynamic engineers weren’t even a thing yet she had completed a mechanical

engineering classification.

Lockheed would form a missile division that Mrs. Ross would help spearhead in 1953,

together with a team of engineers she would develop the Polaris ballistic missile, a series of near
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earth satellite systems, and many intermediate-range ballistic missile systems otherwise known

as IRBM. She would also help catapult the united states into the space age by helping in the field

of hydrodynamics and creating the first successfully space launched vehicle the Agenda Rocket.

She would help develop many missions to mars and Venus while working for the space program

and she also wrote the NASA Planetary Flight Handbook Vol.3 which NASA would use for 40

years. By the late 60s she became the senior advance systems staff engineer where she helped in

the development of the Poseidon and Trident Missiles.

Mary Ross would retire in 1973 but she remained an advocate for mathematics and

engineering, especially in opportunities they would create for woman and native Americans. She

would spend her retirement traveling to colleges and high schools lecturing as a founding

member of the SWE (Society of Women Engineers). She would also become a deciding factor in

the development of native American educational programs within the American Indian Science

and Engineering Society (AISES), and the Council of Energy Resource Tribes. The Silicon

Valley engineering council would induct her into the Hall of Fame for her contributions to the

field in 1992. The university of Glasgow has many rewards and scholarships in her name, and

she has been honored in art sculptures and awards all over America.

Four years before she passed the National museum of American Indian opened, she ross

was especially excited about the opening if this establishment. The first woman engineer who

helped put a man on the moon would be quoted saying; “the museum will tell the true story of

the Indian—not just the story of the past but an ongoing story”.
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I was surprised that I had never heard of this woman, she was such a trailblazer and such

an inspiring story of American Indian history. I’m proud that I know her now and I will carry her

story on to as many others as I can, like she wanted to not the past story but the ongoing on of

the true strength of the native American people.

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References

Kara Brigs; 2009; Mary G Ross blazed a trail in the sky as a woman engineer in the space race, celebrated
museum; http://blog.nmai.si.edu/main/2009/10/mary-g-ross-blazed-a-trail-in-the-sky-as-a-woman-
engineer-in-the-space-race-celebrated-museum-.html

Mary Ouimette Kinney, 2016; Biographies of Women Mathematicians/Mary G. Ross; Agnes Scott
College; https://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/maryross.htm