"From 'Kiddie Lit' to Children's Literature: The Biography of Francelia Butler." Contrary to her character, one of the top villains in movie . Four years later, she obtained the Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics at Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana (USA). Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 360-361. Her family later moved to Michigan and Hamilton attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, for a time. She was 82 years old. She was director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for NASA 's Apollo program. In 1954, she graduated from Thomas Hancock High School in Minnesota. Qualification: BA in Mathematics with a Minor in Philosophy, College: Earlham College, University of Michigan, Profession: Computer Scientist, Systems Engineer and Business Owner, Known For: Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed On-board Flight Software for NASAs Apollo Space Program, James Cox Hamilton; (m. 1958; div. Byla editelkou oddlen softwarovho inenrstv v MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, kter vyvjela letov software pro Program Apollo.V roce 1986 zaloila spolenost Hamilton Technologies, kter sdl ve mst Cambridge ve stt Massachusetts. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Hamilton had prepared for just this situation years before: There was one other failsafe that Hamilton likes to remember. Later in life, she would comment on the role of the witch in a light-hearted fashion. Wizard of Oz 'witch' loved her Maine island - The Working Waterfront Principal Investigator, Magnetometer Instrument, Cassini Mission, This site is maintained by the Planetary Science Communications team at. "It quickly became clear that the software was not only informing everyone that there was a hardware-related problem, but that the software was compensating for it. [Related: Apollo Coder and 'Apollo 13' Actor Receive Presidential Medals of Freedom]. Hamilton said: What they used to do when you came into this organization as a beginner, was to assign you this program which nobody was able to ever figure out or get to run. Required fields are marked *. When she was 80 years old, on November 22, 2016, Margaret Hamilton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, presented by the President of the United States, Barack Obama, for her work at NASA during the Apollo missions. [16] She moved on to another project in the summer of 1961, and hired and trained Ellen Fetter as her replacement.[12]. [16][18] These made her code incredibly reliable because they helped programmers identify and fix anomalies before they became major problems.[26]. In 1945, she played the domineering sister of Oz co-star Jack Haley in George White's Scandals, comically trying to prevent him from marrying actress Joan Davis, even going so far as to throw a hatchet at her. August 17, 2016. Her son, interviewed for the 2005 DVD edition of the film, commented that Hamilton enjoyed the line so much, she sometimes used it in her real life. Between 1969 and 1972, the Apollo program carried out 22 missions: 19 with total success, 2 with partial success and 1 with failure. In 2003, she was given the NASA Exceptional Space Act Award for scientific and technical contributions. No Choice But to Be a Pioneer: The Story of Margaret Hamilton In this famous MIT lab, her team developed the navigation software for the Apollo Space Program. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. NASA was so impressed with the software used in Apollo that the basis of it was adapted for Skylab (the first U.S. space station), the space shuttle (which ran more than 100 successful missions in Earth orbit and two fatal failures between 1981 and 2011) and the first digital fly-by-wire systems in aircraft. Margaret Hamilton - Biography - IMDb Hamilton next worked at MITs Instrumentation Laboratory (now the independent Charles Stark Draper Laboratory), which provided aeronautical technology for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Daneman's nephew refused to meet Hamilton because even though he understood she was an actress, he thought it was still possible she really was like the character in the movie. The original caption, she says, reads: Here, Margaret is shown standing beside listings of the software developed by her and the team she was in charge of, the LM [lunar module] and CM [command module] on-board flight software team.. She became very concerned about the role's effect on children, and finally did a guest spot on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1968) to explain that the Witch was just a character in the film, and not herself. [16] A Republican, she supported the campaign of Dwight Eisenhower during the 1952 presidential election. This system played a crucial role just before the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969. [7][9] She cites Florence Long, the head of the math department at Earlham, as helping with her desire to pursue abstract mathematics and become a mathematics professor. "Hamilton was honored by NASA in 2003, when she was presented a special award recognizing the value of her innovations in the Apollo software development," NASA wrote in 2016. Biography of Margaret Hamilton, American scientist, notable computer scientist who worked at NASA in support of Apollo missions. I said, 'Yes?' [10] She also made personal appearances, and Hamilton described the children's usual reaction to her portrayal of the Witch: Almost always they want me to laugh like the Witch. A century earlier, she had a worthy British predecessor named Ada Lovelace. They're clapping at hearing the sound again.[11]. 2003 Annual Report of the NASA Inventions and Contributions Board, 2003. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. In those years, there were no programming languages like at the end of the 20th century. They were married on June 15, 1958, the summer after she graduated from Earlham. Margaret Hamilton was born December 9, 1902 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Jennie (Adams) and Walter Hamilton. In 1933, Hamilton was invited to repeat her stage role of the sarcastic daughter-in-law in the Broadway play Another Language for the MGM film version. Both those elements were crucial during the Apollo 11 mission (1969), which took astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the Moon. We took our work seriously, many of us beginning this journey while still in our 20s. But a software incident almost derailed the landing, as Hamilton recalled in a 2009 interview with MIT. Starred in the live on-stage musical "A Little Night Music" (with actress Jean Simmons in the lead role) during the mid-1970s in San Francisco. Her crisp voice with rapid but clear enunciation was another trademark. What followed next were brief messages from Apollo 11 to Robledo de Chabela in Spain; and from Spain to Houston, where Margaret was; from Houston to Robledo; and from Robledo to Apollo 11. (196566; Hamilton had been offered the role of Grandmama, but turned it down. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. [42][43][44] It was successfully used in numerous government programs[45][46] including a project to formalize and implement C-IDEF, an automated version of IDEF, a modeling language developed by the U.S. Air Force in the Integrated Computer-Aided Manufacturing (ICAM) project. She grew up during a time when very few women studied computer science, but Hamilton knew she wanted to write code. Biography. The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. She knew everything about these vital programs. In 1939, Hamilton played the role of the Wicked Witch of the West, opposite Judy Garland's Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, creating not only her most famous role, but also one of the screen's most memorable villains. In addition to requiring a deep understanding of computers, it was not easy to write just over 400,000 lines of code that were inserted into the operating system of the lunar module in the Apollo missions. While studying mathematics and philosophy at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, she met James Hamilton, and they subsequently married. Margaret H. Hamilton: Apollo Computer Programmer | Space In 1962, Hamilton played Leora Scofield, a suffragette who arrives in Laramie, Wyoming, to bolster feminist causes in a territory where women had already obtained the right to vote, in the episode "Beyond Justice" of NBC's Laramie. Margaret Hamilton List of Movies and TV Shows - TV Guide Margaret Hamilton The Movie Database (TMDB) [2010]. Margaret Elaine Hamilton (born Heafield on August 17, 1936) is an American computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner. ", Hamilton later left MIT to start her own software company, but her name is still most recognized for her lunar landing accomplishments. Margaret Brainard Hamilton (December 9, 1902 - May 16, 1985) was an American actress and educator. In later years, Hamilton made frequent . The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Margaret Hamilton Biography, Facts & Life Story. How Margaret Hamilton Helped Land NASA On The Moon - All That's Interesting "From my own perspective, the software experience itself (designing it, developing it, evolving it, watching it perform and learning from it for future systems) was at least as exciting as the events surrounding the mission," she said. UConnToday, 23 April 2013. Margaret Hamilton biography American computer scientist - Salient Women She loved and doted upon children all her life. One of the many contributors to this effort was Margaret Hamilton, a computer scientist who led the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which in 1961 contracted with NASA to develop the Apollo programs guidance system. Hamilton was the recipient of various honours, including NASAs Exceptional Space Act Award (2003). Margaret Hamilton, the actress whose role as the cackling Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz unnerved generations of children, died yesterday, apparently of a heart attack, at a nursing home in Salisbury, Connecticut. Margaret Hamilton was born December 9, 1902 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Jennie (Adams) and Walter Hamilton. Searching to find out more about Margaret Hamilton? She often remarked about children coming up to her and asking her why she had been so mean to Dorothy. Biography of Margaret Hamilton, American Computer Scientist, Biography of Elizabeth Barrett, British poet, Biography of Ursula von der Leyen, German politician, Biography of Isabel Zendal, Spanish nurse, Biography of Sheila Herrero, Spanish athlete, Biography of Genoveva Torres, Spanish religious. Margaret Hamilton Biography | Fandango As Neil Armstrong was already preparing to bring the ship down, the computer started displaying two errors: error 1201 and error 1202. After graduating in 1958, she taught high-school mathematics for a short time. Computer scientist Margaret Hamilton poses for a series of photos with the Apollo guidance software she and her team developed at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory.