Kansas City, Missouri (September 20, 1910 -November 10, 2008) age 88 yrs

Dorothy Johnson Vaughan was an African American mathematician and human computer. She made important contributions to the early years of the US space program. She was the first African American manager at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. This committee later became part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She became an expert at FORTRAN, a computer programming language used for scientific and algebraic applications. She retired from NASA in 1971. The 2016 film “Hidden Figures” highlighted Dorothy Vaughan’s story. It also featured her two colleagues, Mary Jackson and Katherine Johnson.