Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly

spent part of her childhood on the base,
where “everybody’s daddy had a plane.”
She grew up overhearing her stepfather
and his crew tell stories of the “crazy
things” the NACA nuts put them through
in order to analyze the flying qualities of
their experimental model bomber.
Gloria, who is white, graduated from
Hampton High School in 1947,
completed an associate’s degree at a
local business college, and found a job
as the secretary to the head of a printing
company in Newport News. In 1959,
Gloria took the civil service exam and
accepted a job as a secretary in the
Mercury range office, helping with the
logistics required to build the worldwide
tracking network that debuted with John
Glenn’s orbital flight.
In 1974, an equal opportunity program