Bill Text: NY K00860 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced

New York Assembly Resolution 860 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Celebrating the life and accomplishments of Katherine Johnson, renowned mathematician and a true pioneer of the space era

Spectrum: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 49-4)

Status: (Passed) 2020-06-10 - adopted [K00860 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-K00860-Introduced.html


Assembly Resolution No. 860

BY: M. of A. Peoples-Stokes

        CELEBRATING  the  life  and  accomplishments of of
        Katherine Johnson, renowned mathematician and a true
        pioneer of the space era

  WHEREAS, There are certain outstanding members of our community who,
through their selfless commitment and dedication, have served to  better
the  quality of life in our community and have had a measurable positive
impact on the lives of its residents; Katherine  Johnson  was  one  such
individual; and

  WHEREAS,  It  is  with  great  sorrow  and  deep  regret  that  this
Legislative Body records the passing of Katherine  Johnson,  noting  the
significance of her purposeful life and accomplishments; and

  WHEREAS,   Katherine   Johnson,   an  American  mathematician  whose
calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee  were  critical  to
the  success  of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights, died
on Monday, February 24, 2020, at the age of 101; and

  WHEREAS, Wielding little more than a pencil, a slide rule and one of
the  finest  mathematical  minds  in  the  country,  Katherine   Johnson
calculated the precise trajectories that would let Apollo 11 land on the
moon  in 1969, and after Neil Armstrong's history-making moonwalk, allow
its safe return to Earth; and

  WHEREAS, Katherine Johnson's  impeccable  calculations  had  already
helped plot the successful flight of Alan B. Shepard Jr., who became the
first  American in space when his Mercury spacecraft went aloft in 1961;
the very next year, she helped make it possible for John Glenn,  in  the
Mercury  vessel  Friendship 7, to become the first American to orbit the
Earth; and

  WHEREAS, A few days before his historic flight, John  Glenn  made  a
final  check  of his planned orbital trajectory which had been generated
by a computer which was still a novelty at NASA; and

  WHEREAS, Unsettled by the calculations of  a  computer,  John  Glenn
asked  Katherine  Johnson to double-check the machine's figures by hand;
he then declared, "If she says the numbers are good, I'm ready to  go.";
and

  WHEREAS,  Throughout  Katherine  Johnson's 33 years in NASA's Flight
Research Division, the office from  which  the  American  space  program
sprang, and for decades afterward, almost no one knew her name; and

  WHEREAS,  Katherine  Johnson  was  one of several hundred rigorously
educated, supremely capable yet largely unheralded women who worked as a
NASA mathematician; in addition to her gender, this extraordinary woman,
who began her scientific career  in  the  age  of  Jim  Crow,  was  also
African-American; and

  WHEREAS, Katherine Johnson began her illustrious career with NASA in
June  of 1953, after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an Executive

Order barring racial discrimination in the defense industry;  she  began
in  Langley's  West  Area Computing Unit, the segregated office to which
the black women were  regulated,  tabulating  sheets  of  data  for  the
agency's engineers; and

  WHEREAS,  Two weeks into her new job, Katherine Johnson was borrowed
by  the  Flight  Research  Division,  where  she  helped  calculate  the
aerodynamic  forces  of  airplanes,  quickly demonstrating herself as an
invaluable asset; she remained in the division for the remainder of  her
career; and

  WHEREAS,  Katherine Johnson went on to become the most celebrated of
the small cadre of black women who  served  as  mathematicians  for  the
space  agency  and  its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics; and

  WHEREAS,  In  2015,  President  Barack   Obama   awarded   her   the
Presidential  Medal  of  Freedom,  and two years later, NASA dedicated a
building in her honor, the Katherine G. Johnson  Computational  Research
Facility, at its Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia; and

  WHEREAS,  Through  the  years,  Katherine Johnson published numerous
technical papers, and was the first woman at NASA to be named author  or
co-author on an agency report; and

  WHEREAS,  Katherine  Johnson was truly instrumental in enlarging the
frontiers of space while simultaneously making huge  strides  for  women
and  people  of  color  in  the  universal human quest to explore space;
through her tenacity, she literally opened the doors for women to attend
NASA's scientific briefings; and

  WHEREAS, After retiring from NASA, Katherine Johnson traveled across
the country to promote the importance of a good  mathematics  education,
which  can  strengthen  the  power of reasoning, creativity, abstract or
spatial thinking, critical thinking, problem-solving  ability  and  even
effective communication skills; and

  WHEREAS, Predeceased by her second husband, James, and her daughter,
Connie,  Katherine Johnson is survived by two daughters, Joylette Hylick
and Katherine Moore; six grandchildren, and 11  great-grandchildren,  as
well as numerous colleagues, friends, and children who dream of changing
the world; and

  WHEREAS,  Katherine  Johnson's  name  is  synonymous with character,
dignity, intellect, depth and humor, qualities evident to her family and
to all those who were fortunate enough to have known her;  she  will  be
deeply  missed and truly merits the grateful tribute of this Legislative
Body; now, therefore, be it

  RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its  deliberations  to
celebrate the life and accomplishments of of Katherine Johnson, renowned
mathematician and a true pioneer of the space era; and be it further

  RESOLVED,  That  a  copy  of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be
transmitted to the family of Katherine Johnson.