Garrettsville – The home of Karen Miller was the site of the March 21, 2019 meeting of the Twentieth Century Club of Garrettsville. Roll call was answered by members speculations on what professions they might have followed had they not chosen the path that they did. Most were quite satisfied with their roads taken but some flights of fancy into uncharted territories would have made up an entirely different group at the gathering.
Members were reminded of the Spring Party approaching on April 4, at the Cellar Door, beginning at 6:00 p.m. Officers will be installed and guests may be invited for the evening’s entertainment, master of the magical arts, Gary Morton. Members are reminded to wear hats, per the year’s theme. Officers to be installed were announced by the nominating committee; they are : president–Nasreen Kitko, vice president–Jane Hill, secretary–Carol Torda, treasurer–Karen Miller, historian–Pat Amor, sunshine–Bonnie Oliver, publicity–Iva Walker. The program for the evening was presented by Jan Boehm, who illuminated the life of Katherine Johnson.
This little-known woman was born in White Sulphur Springs, WV in 1918, was a student of and outstanding achiever in mathematics from an early age. Since the state did not provide education for African-American children past the eighth grade, her family made special arrangements to allow her to attend the university school at West Virginia State College at age ten; her instructors there created special courses for her to engage her talent. She went on to pioneer work in mathematics and as an African-American and as a woman, facing discrimination all the way in each aspect of her work. She went to work at the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA, later to become NASA), writing ?Notes on Space Technology, ?giving a description of orbital flight in 1960, worked calculating outcomes of Project Apollo and Freedom 7. John Glenn insisted that she check the calculations for his historic earth orbit and she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. The movie “Hidden Figures” was based on her story in the development of the U.S. space program. There is a statue of her in the WV State University and a $250million endowment named for her.
Refreshments followed, served by the hostess, Karen Miller and co-hostess, Gale Lane.
