Gladys Mae West was born in rur­al Vir­ginia in 1930, grew up work­ing on a tobac­co farm, and died ear­li­er this month a cel­e­brat­ed math­e­mati­cian whose work made pos­si­ble the GPS tech­nol­o­gy most of us use each and every day. Hers was a dis­tinc­tive­ly Amer­i­can life, in more ways than one. Seek­ing an escape from … Con­tin­ue read­ing RIP Gladys Mae West, the Pio­neer­ing Black Math­e­mati­cian Who Helped Lay the Foun­da­tion for GPS