Katherine Johnson, a pioneering mathematician who, working for the predecessor to NASA, charted the trajectory of the first American in space, was awarded honorary degrees by both West Virginia State University and West Virginia University last weekend, more than 75 years after she attended both schools.
Johnson, a native of White Sulphur Springs, graduated from West Virginia State in 1937 (at age 18) and later briefly attended WVU.
Johnson was one of four people to receive honorary degrees at WVU's commencement exercises over the weekend and one of two to receive one from West Virginia State.
Johnson, who is 97 and lives in Newport News, Virginia, was represented by her daughter at the ceremonies.
In November, President Barack Obama awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award the president can bestow.
"Katherine was a pioneer who broke the barriers of race and gender, showing generations of young people that everyone can excel in math and science and reach for the stars," Obama said.
In December, the Gazette-Mail named Johnson the 2015 West Virginian of the Year, "for her groundbreaking and heretofore largely unheralded work that allowed Americans to explore uncharted worlds and for a lifetime spent demonstrating how education and perseverance can help overcome injustice."
Earlier this month, NASA named a building after Johnson at its research center in Langley, Virginia, where she had worked for 33 years. And a movie about Johnson and other black women "computers" at NASA started filming about two months ago and could be released by the end of the year.
Johnson was born into segregation in White Sulphur Springs, but her father moved the family to Institute during school years, so that she and her siblings could attend a high school attached to West Virginia State. Schooling for black women in White Sulphur Springs stopped in eighth grade at the time.
After graduating from the then all-black West Virginia State College (now West Virginia State University) with degrees in math and French, Johnson briefly did graduate studies at WVU.
A 1938 U.S. Supreme Court decision had forced public universities to admit black students to graduate school if similar courses were not available at the state's black colleges.
So, the president of WVU asked the president of West Virginia State for, essentially, his three best students. Johnson was one, but she did not stay in Morgantown long, just one summer.
"Mom said it was not a friendly environment," Johnson's daughter, Joylette Hylick said last year.
Johnson eventually ended up working at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which later became NASA.
As a research mathematician, she charted the trajectory of Alan Shepard's 1961 launch into space, the first by an American.
A year later, when John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth, NASA had computers to chart his path. But nobody quite trusted them, and the mission wasn't launched until Johnson double-checked the numbers.
In her 33 years at NACA and NASA, Johnson published 26 scientific papers, including the first one her division ever published with a woman's name on it.
She was one of four people to receive honorary degrees from WVU over the weekend.
Also honored were three other West Virginia natives: Rodgin Cohen, a corporate lawyer for the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, Brad Smith, the CEO of Intuit, and Charlie McCoy, a longtime country musician and harmonica virtuoso.
West Virginia State also honored Charles Patton, president of Appalachian Power.
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