Dorothy

Vaughan
Dorothy Johnson Vaughan (September 20, 1910 November 10, 2008) was
an African American mathematician and human computer who worked for the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and NASA, at Langley
Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. In 1949, she became acting supervisor of
the West Area Computers, the rst African-American woman to supervise a
group of staff at the center.

She later was promoted o cially to this position. During her 28-year career,
Vaughan prepared for the introduction of machine computers in the early 1960s
by teaching herself and her staff the programming language of FORTRAN; she
later headed the programming section of the Analysis and Computation Division
(ACD) at Langley.

Vaughan is one of the women featured in Margot Lee Shetterly's history Hidden
Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space
Race (2016). It was adapted as a biographical lm of the same name, also
released in 2016.

Early Life
Vaughan was born September 20, 1910 in Kansas City, Missouri, the daughter
of Annie and Leonard Johnson. Her family moved to Morgantown, West
Virginia, where she graduated from Beechurst High School in 1925. Receiving a
full-tuition scholarship, she graduated at the age of 19 with a B.A. in
mathematics in 1929 from Wilberforce University, a historically black college
located in Wilberforce, Ohio.
Career
Although encouraged by professors to do graduate study at Howard University,
Vaughan soon started working as a teacher. She wanted to assist her family
during the Great Depression. Dorothy married Howard S. Vaughan Jr. in 1932,
and the couple had six children.

In 1943, Vaughan began what developed as a 28-year-career as a

mathematician and programmer at Langley Research Center. She specialized in
calculations for ight paths, the Scout Project, and FORTRAN computer
programming. One of her children also later worked at NASA.

After college, Vaughan worked as a mathematics teacher at R.R. Moton High

School in Farmville, Virginia. Virginia's public schools and other facilities were still
racially segregated under Jim Crow laws.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to ensure the war effort drew from all of
American society after the United States entered World War II in 1942. He issued
Executive Order 8802, to desegregate the defense industry, and Executive Order
9346 to end racial segregation and discrimination in hiring and promotion
among federal agencies and defense contractors. The US believed that the war
was going to be won in the air. It had already ramped up airplane production,
creating a great demand for engineers, mathematicians, craftsmen and skilled
tradesmen. With many men being swept into service, federal agencies such as
the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) expanded their hiring
and increased recruiting of women to support war production of airplanes.
In 1943 Vaughan started to work at NACA, which in 1935 had established a
section of women mathematicians, who performed complex calculations.
Vaughan was assigned to the West Area Computers of the Langley Research
Center in Hampton, Virginia. This segregated group consisted of African-
American women who made complex mathematical calculations by hand, using
tools of the time.

Their work expanded in the postwar years to support research and design for
the United States' space program, which was emphasized under President John
F. Kennedy. Vaughan moved into the area of electronic computing in 1961, after
NACA introduced the rst digital (non-human) computers to the center. Vaughan
became pro cient in computer programming, teaching herself FORTRAN and
teaching it to her coworkers to prepare them for the transition. She contributed
to the space program through her work on the Scout Launch Vehicle Program.

In 1949, Vaughan was assigned as the acting head of the West Area
Computers, taking over from a white woman who had died. She was the rst
Black supervisor at NACA and one of few female supervisors. She led a group
composed entirely of African-American women mathematicians. She served for
years in an acting role before being promoted o cially to the position as
supervisor. Vaughan worked for opportunities for the women in West
Computing as well as women in other departments.

Seeing that machine computers were going to be the future, she taught the
women programming languages and other concepts to prepare them for the
transition. Mathematician Katherine Johnson was initially assigned to Vaughan's
group, before being transferred to Langley's Flight Mechanics Division.
Vaughan continued after NASA, the successor agency, was established in 1958.
At that time, the agency ended racial segregation at the facility. In a 1994
interview, Vaughan recalled that working at Langley during the Space Race felt
like being on "the cutting edge of something very exciting." Regarding being an
African-American woman during that time, she remarked, "I changed what I
could, and what I couldn't, I endured." Vaughan worked in the Numerical
Techniques division through the 1960s. She later became part of the Analysis
and Computation Division (ACD). She worked at NASA-Langley for a total of
twenty-eight years.

During her career at Langley, Vaughan was also raising her six children. One of
them later also worked at NASA-Langley. Vaughan lived in Newport News,
Virginia and commuted to work at Hampton via public transportation.

Later Years
Vaughan retired from NASA in 1971, at the age of 60. She lived until November
10, 2008, aged 98. Vaughan was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, an African-
American sorority. She was also an active member of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church, where she participated in music and missionary activities.