Honoring a Pioneer: The Dr. Gladys West Foundation and Its Mission to Inspire Future Innovators

We live in a world where GPS is everywhere, from our phones telling us where to turn to ambulances finding the fastest route. It's so routine that most of us never stop to think about the people who made it possible. But one of the key figures behind it was Dr. Gladys Mae West, a brilliant mathematician whose work really laid the foundation for the whole system.

Sadly, she passed away just recently, on January 17, 2026, at 95. Her legacy lives on through efforts like the Dr. Gladys West Foundation, a nonprofit set up to celebrate her incredible contributions and keep inspiring the next generation, especially in STEM fields.

The foundation isn't just about looking back, it's about carrying forward the passion she had for learning and discovery throughout her career. Dr. West's big breakthrough came from her mathematical models of Earth's shape (that irregular "geoid" thing) and the complex algorithms she developed while working at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Virginia. Those calculations were crucial for getting satellites to pinpoint locations accurately, which is basically what lets GPS work so well today. As people close to her work have said, she helped change how we navigate, stay connected, and even understand our planet.

What the foundation focuses on now is opening doors in STEM, particularly for kids and communities that haven't always had equal access to those fields. They do this through things like:

- Scholarships for students going into math, engineering, computer science, and similar areas.

- Programs that introduce young people to Dr. West's story and the bigger history of women and people of color who've shaped science and tech.

- Mentorships that pair students up with professionals in the field.

- Support for research and outreach that build on her legacy.

Her own life story makes all of this feel so personal. She grew up in a small rural spot in Virginia, graduated as her high school's valedictorian, went on to earn advanced degrees, and then spent decades programming some of the earliest computers to crunch massive amounts of data about Earth's gravity, tides, and shape. It was painstaking work that directly fed into precise satellite positioning.

For a long time, though, hardly anyone outside tight scientific circles knew about her role. Recognition only really started coming in the last decade or so, including her induction into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame.

Now, with help from donors and supporters, the foundation is making sure her impact keeps rippling forward, creating opportunities for young people who might go on to invent the next big thing. Contributions go straight toward funding those scholarships, programs, and initiatives, so her drive for innovation can keep showing up in classrooms, labs, and neighborhoods everywhere.

Honoring Dr. West also means celebrating what education can do. It took her from a segregated small town to becoming a driving force behind one of the most useful technologies we have today. Through the foundation, that same kind of inspiration is reaching students from all kinds of backgrounds, encouraging them to dream big and push boundaries just like she did.

Source of article taken from Dr. Gladys West Foundation website: https://gladyswestfoundation.org/

Sophie Bullock. OPENPRESS.