Hidden Figure

Arkansas woman played vital role in modern ship design

History is important. But sometimes we don’t hear about all our history. The book and film “Hidden Figures” put the spotlight on a story that went untold for years. It was about how African American female mathematicians made vital contributions to the U.S. space program while working at NASA in the 1960s. Their work went largely unrecognized amid all the attention focused on U.S. achievements in space.

The story, finally told, is inspiring. Unfortunately it’s not all that uncommon. Many women and minorities saw their achievements in all sorts of fields marginalized over the years. One of those people was Arkansas’ own Raye Montague.

Born during 1935 in Little Rock, Montague dreamed of becoming an engineer. She made that happen despite the difficulties that came with being a black woman in the segregated South.

By the late 1950s she was a clerk with the U.S. Navy, taking computer programming classes at night. Before long she was a computer systems analyst for the Naval Ship Engineering Center.

In 1970, Montague became the first person to successfully develop a computer-generated ship design system. Her work changed the way ships were planned and built.

It’s a story that few know, even back home in Arkansas.

Montague died last week in Little Rock. She was 83 years old. Raye Montague was one of those hidden figures in U.S. history who left their mark on our nation. May she rest in peace.