Dorothy Vaughan

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Dorothy Vaughan earned her B.A. in mathematics from Wilberforce University in 1929. She taught math for 14 years before answering the call to national service during World War II, joining the segregated West Area Computing unit at NACA (the precursor to NASA) at Langley Research Center in 1943.

Initially performing complex manual calculations, Vaughan quickly became a supervisor, advocating for her "human computers" and pioneering the use of Fortran programming. She foresaw the advent of electronic computers and ensured her team was trained and ready for the shift, making them indispensable even as technology advanced.

While her contributions were vital to early American space missions, Vaughan was, for decades, largely unsung. Her story, along with those of Katherine Johnson and Mary Jackson, was brought to the forefront by the book and film "Hidden Figures," finally giving these computational titans the credit they were due. She retired from NASA in 1971.

As far as Jewish identity or origin, there's absolutely no indication. She was, however, a devout Methodist, which, while a fine choice for personal salvation, doesn't exactly move the needle on our particular metric.