Mary Golda Ross, born August 9, 1908 in Park Hill, Oklahoma, was the first Native American female engineer. Her great-grandfather was Cherokee Chief John Ross. She attended primary and secondary school in Tahlequah, where she lived with her grandparents. She earned a Bachelor's degree in mathematics from Northeastern State Teachers' College in 1928, and received her Master's degree from Colorado State Teachers College in 1938.
Ross taught in rural Oklahoma schools for nine years. She worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a statistical clerk. She was hired as a mathematician by Lockheed Corporation in 1942 and was a founding engineer of the secretive Skunk Works. During her tenure there, she worked on the Agena Rocket program, and early studies of orbiting satellites.
She passed away in April 2008, just a few months shy of her one hundredth birthday.
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