Retired Teachers to Hear about JPL’s “Rocket Girls”

Arcadia resident Sylvia Miller will tell CalRTA #71 (Retired Teachers) about her years as a “computer” with JPL.

The California Retired Teachers’ Association #71 (CalRTA-SGV) will soon have the pleasure of hearing from a computer. No, this computer is not an electronic device. Instead, it is one of Jet Propulsion Lab’s “human computers!” There was a time, beginning with World War II, that JPL hired women scientists to compute data that was used to chart the paths for NASA’s early space missions.

Arcadia resident Sylvia Miller, one of JPL’s last “human computers,” will tell the Retired Teachers about her experience as one of JPL’s “Rocket Girls,” so named by the author Nathalia Holt in her recent book “The Rise of the Rocket Girls.” Sylvia Miller, along with other brilliant “human computers,” used pencil-and-paper computations (no electronic devices then) to help further NASA’s space program. Holt’s book brings JPL’s Rocket Girls out of obscurity and into the public eye by revealing the role women scientists played in advancing space exploration.

CalRTA #71 will welcome “Rocket Girl” Sylvia Miller to its luncheon meeting on Friday, October 14, at 11:30 a.m. at the Senior Center Building in Arcadia Park (county park), 405 W. Santa Anita Avenue, Arcadia, next to the Lawn Bowling Greens. Guests are welcome to come enjoy the luncheon and to hear Miller’s lively presentation. As an alternative to the hot meal, a tuna salad is also available. The cost of the luncheon for members and guests is $12. Season tickets for the year’s five lunches are available at the discounted price of $55 instead of $60, if purchased separately. For luncheon reservations, please call John Gera at (626) 286-0714 by the October 7 deadline.

Membership in the California Retired Teachers’ Association is open to all retired educators, as well as to any others interested in joining this active group, which now numbers over 500 members in CalRTA #71, the San Gabriel Valley Division. CalRTA’s motto is “Your Partner in Pension Protection.”