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Well. I was born in 1957 and 
turned six and in 1963 and I

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integrated Fifth Avenue School 
here in Huntsville and became the

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first Black child to integrate 
the public schools in the state

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of Alabama on September 9, 1963.

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I feel like integrating the school 
helped me a lot later on because I

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had a chance later on to go to some 
better schools with some better

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facilities and equipment and I think 
that helped prepare me later for

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taking advanced math classes in high 
school for example and being able to

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qualify and get into the University 
of Notre Dame later on where I

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learned a lot about science and 
mathematics there. Did a lot of

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programming there and that really 
laid the groundwork for my

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professional career, programming, 
software design, those kinds of things.

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Most of my STEM professional experience 
has been in computer programming,

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but not just that. I have been able 
to use a lot of my mathematics and

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physics background. For example, 
when I worked at GE in Schenectady,

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that was my first professional job. 
That was back in 1979, I started in

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1979 and the area I worked in was a 
manufacturing area and they needed

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a software system to analyze some 
quality control results and they

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knew it was going to take two or 
three months for the software

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people to develop that. So in a 
couple of days, I wrote a program

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that did most of what they needed 
done. Wrote it in Fortran, that

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was the language back then. And 
that program they used to analyze

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the Q series results until the 
real program got put in place.

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That was one example. Also, later 
on I had a chance to write some

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software for NASA when I worked 
at NASA, some software to analyze

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experiment data that was coming 
down via the TDRSS satellites. The

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person who had that job to 
actually analyze that data had to

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do it manually, had to look at 
columns of information, actually

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it was just an 80 column piece of 
information, and go through there

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and pull out the important 
information and then manually draw

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graphs to show when the experiment 
was running, when the data was

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coming down, what the results were. 
I looked at that and I thought,

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well that can be automated very 
easily. Because the manual job was

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very tedious and error prone, but 
with a computer, of course, it got

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it right every time. So in about a 
week and a half, I wrote a program

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to analyze that same data and chart, 
make graphs of the information.

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That person still thanks me to this 
day for automating a process that

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she had to do manually. But I have 
also had a chance to write some

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simulation software for missile 
interceptor programs. There was

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going to me a missile test, at one 
point I was working at Lockheed

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Martin, there was going to be a 
missile test out at Kwajalein. But all

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of the equipment had not arrived, it 
was not delivered in time to support

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this test. I told my manager that I 
could write some software to simulate

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that piece of equipment that was 
missing so that it would receive the

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inputs from the previous piece of 
equipment and do the processing and

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then pass the outputs to the next 
piece of equipment. So I did that

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and we were able to, I got a chance 
to fly out to Kwajalein, which was

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nice, I got to spend some time in 
Hawaii. But we were able to go

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ahead and run that test and it was 
very successful. So I’ve had a chance

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to use a lot of my math and physics 
background and really enjoyed, I

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think computer programming is really
what I have enjoyed most during my

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career. Unfortunately after you have 
programmed for a while, they want

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you to become a software designer 
and manage programmers and that is

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not as much fun as doing the actual 
programming yourself.

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You know, science and math, those 
things came pretty easily to me and

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like I said, having a chance to go 
to some better schools prepared me

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for, by the time I got to Butler 
High, lets see, I started Butler

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High in 1972, as a tenth grader in 
1972, but it allowed me to take an

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advanced math track once I got to 
Butler and that really helped to

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prepare me to go to Notre Dame. 
When I got to Notre Dame, I was

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taking Calculus and I was competing 
with some kids who had had two

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semesters of calculus in high 
school. So I was at a little bit

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of a disadvantage, but my advanced 
math and trig background was good

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enough that it allowed me to hang 
in there and compete with those kids

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and that really prepared me for a 
technical career, a scientific and

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technical career.

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Well dad really enjoyed mathematics 
back when he was in school, now he

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had never gone as far as calculus, 
as far as taking calculus, but he

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taught me a lot about math, I mean 
at an elementary school level. For

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example, he showed me how to use a 
slide rule. Now I never had to

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actually use a slide rule later 
but learning the concepts of how

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they worked and all. It was just 
interesting to me, if was fascinating

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to me. So it just sort of gave me an 
enthusiasm for mathematics. So dad

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really enjoyed that stuff and even 
though he got a medical degree, he

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was a physician, he never had to take 
calculus. So he could only take me so

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far as far as my mathematics. By the 
time I got to college, I guess I had

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passed the furthest that he ever made 
it in math, but he had instilled in me

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that enthusiasm for math and that 
appreciation for math to the point

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that I sort of developed some theorems 
as a kid that, later on when I took

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algebra, I said, oh yeah, that is the 
same thing that I discovered five

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years ago or something like that, 
about math, about algebra and that

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sort of thing. But that started with 
dad instilling that understanding and

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that appreciation for mathematics in me.

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Well, I think it is better than when 
it was when I was a youngster. And I

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was thinking back, when I was a, I 
think a sophomore at Notre Dame for

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example, I was in the electrical 
engineering curriculum, I think there

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were only, I think there were only 
about seventy or eighty of us in

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electrical engineering as I recall, 
I think there were only two or three

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African American men and one African 
American female in all of the electrical

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engineering program. And I know the 
numbers are a lot, I dont know exactly

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what the numbers are now, but I have 
talked to some professors over the

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years and I know that it is a lot better. 
But I think today the teachers are

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better at encouraging the students 
that have an aptitude for that sort of

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thing, to go ahead and pursue that sort 
of thing. I compare it to again when I

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was a youngster, I know that a lot of 
times, girls were not encouraged to do

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parents that, “No, you are going
to go to secretarial, you are going

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to take secretarial training” and 
that sort of thing. Well I dont

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know and I cannot say for sure if 
that happened with minorities,

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but I can imagine that there were 
situations where minorities were

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discouraged from pursuing that sort 
of thing. I dont think that is the

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case anymore. But one of the things 
that I think is a tremendous help

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is if African American adults, 
professionals especially, would do

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a lot of tutoring and mentoring. 
Now I have done a lot of that over

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the years, going back to, I started 
a tutoring, mentoring program out in

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Triana, which is ninety something 
percent minority population. I have

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tutored and mentored at well what is 
now Holy Family School, it used to

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be Saint Josephs School, it was 
Saint Josephs when I went there.

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Tutored and mentored at the local 
Catholic high school that we have,

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many years ago, and now, I am tutoring 
and mentoring at Sonnie Hereford

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Elementary School here. And I think 
it is really good for minority

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students to see other minorities 
who are in technical fields and

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doing well in technical fields. 
Now I think anybody who is

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interested in tutoring and 
mentoring should do it, but

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I think it has more of an impact 
when there are minority

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professionals who participate 
in those types of programs

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where there are a lot of 
minorities students where they can

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see the success of pursing 
mathematics or pursuing physics,

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or computer programming, that sort 
of thing. So I think that is one of

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the things that we could do today 
that would really help to instill

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that love for technical subjects in 
minority students these days.

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Another thing, I think back to my own 
childhood. Being exposed to space, being

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exposed to the space program. I 
think the Mercury Program ran until

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about 1963 as I recall. That is 
when I started first grade. So

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when I was a grade schooler, I 
paid a lot of attention to the

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Gemini Program, then the Apollo 
Program and that really got me

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excited about space and about 
wanting to do technical things.

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I guess I would say too, having 
a telescope, being able to do

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things with a telescope, and even 
science fiction, you know exposing,

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making sure kids get exposed to 
things like that, even that can

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fire kids up. And even though, 
obviously, a lot of that is fiction

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but a lot of that comes true in 
the future, you know and I think

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that can help kids to dream and 
to be inspired to try to do technical