Marion Lee Johnson

Marion Lee Johnson is an American mathematician whose work was crucial to the landing of the Apollo 11 mission. She was a mathematician on the Boeing/NASA team, where she worked in preparing data for the vehicle impact trajectories.[1] Her perfect score over 20 successful missions earned her a place on the Apollo/Saturn V Roll of Honor.[2][1]

After completion of the project, she worked for Pfizer for 26 years. She currently lives in New Jersey.

Life and career

She was born in a working-class family in Savannah, Georgia, with three sisters and a brother.[3] She attended school at Moses Jackson, in a segregated neighborhood. Very early, she fell in love with mathematics, and credits this love to her 7th grade maths teacher, Walter B. Simmons.[4][5] She graduated class valedictorian from high school at Thompkins High School in 1963.[6][2] In 1967, she was granted a scholarship at Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama, to study mathematics,[7] and assumed that her degree would lead her to become a teacher.[4] After losing her scholarship because her grades had slipped, Johnson took out a loan to continue her degree, and prioritised her studies in order to requalify for the scholarship.[3]

After graduation, at the age of 21, she went to work as an associate engineer at Boeing Company in Huntsville, Alabama.[8][2][9] She was assigned to the Launch Systems branch of the Boeing/NASA team at the Marshall Space Flight Centre to prepare the landing of the Apollo 11 mission.[1][2] At the time, very few women worked at the Space Flight Centre.[5] Johnson worked under the supervision of Arthur Rudolph and rocket designer Wernher von Braun, on the calculations to simulate vehicle piece impact trajectories (where the booster rockets would fall).[1][2][9] According to Lee, Boeing was a diverse place. In an interview for 1010 WINS' with Larry Mullins in 2018, she said: "You had a lot of people there - a lot of people from all different cultures - and we all worked together."[8] According to Johnson, it was only after seeing the 2016 movie Hidden Figures that she realised how important her own contributions were to NASA.[10]

After two years working for Boeing/NASA, Johnson then went to work at Pfizer, Inc., where she became Project Leader for the Corporate Information Technology Division.[2] She retired from Pfizer after 26 years.[2]

A resident of Union County, New Jersey, she recently retired from Branford Hall Career Institute as a Computer Networking and Security Instructor.[6] The city of Plainfield awarded Johnson the key to the city, and designated two days to honor her legacy.[8][11] She is married to J. Frank Johnson, the owner of an accounting, tax, audit, and advisory services company, with whom she has three children.[2]

References

1. "Marion Lee Johnson". Cincinnati Museum Center. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
2. Golden Carmon, Rev. W. (May 15, 2017). "Marion Lee Johnson: A Hidden Figure". The Christian Recorder. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
3. Journal, Caitlin Mota | The Jersey (2017-02-26). "Jersey City teacher honored as one of N.J.'s own 'Hidden Figures'". nj. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
4. Monks, Michael (18 February 2020). "'Hidden Figure' Marion Lee Johnson Talks NASA Career". www.wvxu.org. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
5. "NJ's own 'Hidden Figure' delivers powerful speech on the importance of mentoring | Video". NJTV News. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
6. Segedy, Andria. "Savannah's own 'Hidden Figure': Marion Lee Johnson worked on Apollo 11 program". Bluffton Today. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
7. "Black History Month One-On-One: 'Hidden Figure' Marion Lee Johnson". 2018-02-01. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
8. "Black History Month One-On-One: 'Hidden Figure' Marion Lee Johnson". 2018-02-01. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
9. "Here and Now on March 26, 2017: Marion Johnson". ABC7 New York. 2017-03-29. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
10. "Mathematician and Engineer Marion Johnson, of the Apollo 11 Mission, Inspires Girl Scouts to Become America's Next Tech Leaders". TAPinto. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
11. "Marion Lee Johnson Day - City of Plainfield". Central Jersey Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. Retrieved 2020-07-12.