Innovators: Mary Sherman Morgan

Episode Summary

Mary Sherman Morgan was born in 1921 in North Dakota. She came from a farming family and started formal education late at age 9. She excelled in chemistry in high school. During WWII, she left college to work in a munitions factory producing explosives. After the war, she was hired as the only female engineer at North American Aviation. In 1951, she married George Morgan. After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, starting the space race, Morgan was hired to develop a powerful rocket fuel for the U.S. military. As technical lead, she created Hydyne, the fuel used in the first stage of Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite launched in 1958. Morgan retired after having her second child. She passed away in 2004. Her work was unknown for years due to secrecy and her own privacy. Thanks to her son's efforts, Morgan is now recognized for her innovations enabling the first U.S. satellite launch. She made pivotal contributions to rocket science while overcoming gender barriers in a male-dominated field.

Episode Show Notes

Mary Sherman Morgan (1921-2004) is known as America's first female rocket scientist.

Episode Transcript

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Professional is ours to define and our authentic selves are our professional selves. Post your truth, show the world the authentic professional you and join the conversations redefining professional on LinkedIn. LinkedIn, welcome professionals. Hey listeners, it's Jenny with another podcast I think you'll love, Ted Talks Daily. Every weekday, you'll hear new ideas on every topic imaginable, from artificial intelligence to AI. From artificial intelligence to how the war in Ukraine can change everything. One episode in particular that I thought you'd really like is the recent talk from creator, comedian and actress, Lilly Singh. Lilly gets into how women and girls are conditioned to believe success is a seat at the table. When really we should build a better table. She's hilarious and not only shares intimate experiences from her career, but also offers ways we can build a more inclusive society where girls are encouraged and empowered to do great things. If you'd like to hear part of her talk or head over to Ted Talks Daily from the Ted Audio Collective, wherever you listen. SPEAKER_04: Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Michelle Monahan and this is Womanica. This month we're highlighting innovators from inventors to activists who explored and forged new paths that lead us to where we are today. Today we're telling the story of a woman whose unique contributions to the space age were almost erased from history. A newspaper refused to publish an obituary her son had written because they couldn't verify any of the information. She was later dubbed the best kept secret in the space race. Please welcome Mary Sherman Morgan. Mary Sherman was born in the small town of Ray, North Dakota on November 4th, 1921. She came from a large farming family and spent her childhood immersed in farmyard chores. Her parents didn't send her to school until she was nine when the local district forced the family to comply. The district gave young Mary a horse as transport to and from the schoolhouse. Her late start in formal education didn't seem to hold her back. She graduated high school as the valedictorian in 1939. Mary had an impressive affinity for chemistry which earned her a place at Minot State University as a chemistry major. When World War II broke out, Mary left her degree unfinished and went to work in a munitions factory as a chemical analyst producing explosives for the military. After the war, she was hired by North American Aviation in California. She was the only woman out of 900 engineers. In 1951, she married a fellow engineer, George Morgan and became Mary Sherman Morgan. Six years later on October 4th, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite into space, Sputnik 1. SPEAKER_01: It's a report from man's farthest frontier. Radio signal transmitted by the Soviet Sputnik, the first man-made satellite as it passed over New York earlier today. SPEAKER_04: The satellite may have been the size of a beach ball but it had a monumental impact on politics, science and technology. As NASA said, it marked the start of the space age in the US USSR space race. Up until that point, the US military's efforts to design a competitive orbital space rocket weren't working out. They hired Mary's company to create a powerful rocket fuel. Mary was named the technical lead of the project. Her tireless work resulted in Hydine, the rocket fuel used for the first stage of America's first successful satellite launch, Explorer 1 on January 31st, 1958. Explorer 1 later detected the Van Allen radiation belt surrounding earth, making it the first scientific discovery made in space. Mary retired from work after the arrival of her second child. She passed away from emphysema in 2004. The press coverage of Explorer 1 from the time is rich with photographs of Wernher von Braun, who was widely celebrated as the inventor of the rocket that launched the first US satellite. Even though his rocket never would have taken off without Mary's Hydine fuel, her work was little known and unrecognized for many years. This was in part caused by the secrecy of the program, but also due to Mary's own intense privacy. She intentionally eschewed the fame she could have had, said her son and biographer, George Morgan, who has been on a mission since his mother's death to bring back her story from oblivion. Thanks to his persistence on getting her name out there, Mary Sherman Morgan has come to be known as the inventive rocket scientist she was. For more information and pictures of some of the work we're talking about, find us on Facebook and Instagram, at Womanica Podcast. And special thanks to Jenny and Liz Kaplan for inviting me to guest host. Talk to you tomorrow. SPEAKER_09: You see, my goal was always a seat at the table. It's what women are conditioned to believe success is. And when the chair doesn't fit, when it doesn't reach the table, when it's wobbly, when it's full of splinters, we don't have the luxury of fixing it or finding another one. But we try anyways. We take on that responsibility and we shoulder that burden. Now I've been fortunate enough to sit at a few seats at a few different tables. And what I've learned is when you get the seat, trying to fix the seat won't fix the problem. Why? Because the table was never built for us in the first place. The solution, build better tables. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! So allow me to be your very own IKEA manual. I would like to present to you a set of guidelines I very eloquently call, how to build a table that doesn't suck. I've been told I'm very literal. Now right off the bat, let me tell you, this assembly is gonna take more than one person or group of people. It's gonna take everyone. Are you ready? Should we dive in? Let's do it. Up first, don't weaponize gratitude. Now don't get me wrong, gratitude is a great word. It's nice, it's fluffy, a solid 11 points in Scrabble. Okay? However, let's be clear. Although gratitude feels warm and fuzzy, it's not a form of currency. Women are assigned 10% more work and spend more time on unrewarded, unrecognized and non-promotable tasks. Basically what this means is all the things men don't wanna do are being handed to women. And a lot of those things largely include things that advance inclusivity, equity and diversity in the workplace. So hear me when I say, a woman shouldn't be grateful to sit at a table. She should be paid to sit at a table. Especially ones she largely helped build. And a woman's seat shouldn't be threatened if she doesn't seem grateful enough. In other words, corporations, this step involves a woman doing a job and being paid in money, opportunity and promotion, not just gratitude. 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