Biography. 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.. Because software was a mystery, a black box, upper management gave us total freedom and trust. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Her other mid-1970s stage productions, as the producer, were The Three Sisters and House Party.[where? Her husband is Paul Boynton Meserve (13 June1931 - 20 May1938)( divorced)( 1 child). Margaret Hamilton - IMDb Hamilton had to recuperate in a hospital and at home for six weeks after the accident before returning to the set to complete her work on the film and refused to have anything further to do with fire for the rest of the filming. Margaret H. Hamilton is a computer scientist who was instrumental to NASA's efforts to land humans on the moon in the 1960s and 1970s. In 2019, she was awarded the Intrepid Lifetime Achievement Award. She is one of the people credited with coining the term "software engineering". She appeared on an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 1975 where she explained to children she was only playing a role and showed how putting on a costume "transformed" her into the witch. SAGE was soon developed for military use in anti-aircraft air defense. Margaret Hamilton (* 17. srpna 1936 Paoli) je americk softwarov inenrka a podnikatelka. She was Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for the Apollo space program. Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2022-06-01 07:53, By Maia Weinstock | MIT News Office In reality, she cared deeply about children, frequently giving to charitable organizations. Margaret Elaine Hamilton (born Heafield on August 17, 1936) is an American computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner. 2003 Annual Report of the NASA Inventions and Contributions Board, 2003. Half a century ago, MIT played a critical role in the development of the flight software for NASAs Apollo program, which landed humans on the Moon for the first time in 1969. Play Girl. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Even adolescents. NASA Science Social Media Consolidation FAQ, Questions and Answers for SMD Bridge Program Workshop Organizing Committee, Biological and Physical Sciences Advisory Committee, PI Launchpad: Developing Your First Flight Mission Proposal, PI Launchpad: Pre-application Information Session, Questions and Answers about the PI Launchpad 2021 Virtual Workshop, Questions and Answers about the PI Launchpad 2023 In-Person Workshop, Science Mission Directorate PI Launchpad Workshop, Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project (NEBP), Ocean Community Engagement and Awareness using NASA Earth Observations and Science for Hispanic/Latino students, Best Practices for Establishing Part-Time/Time-Limited Supervisory Opportunities, Science Career Opportunities Planning and Exploration Workshop. "Everything was going according to plan until something totally unexpected happened, just as the astronauts were in the process of landing on the moon," she recalled. After graduating in 1958, she taught high-school mathematics for a short time. Related: Apollo Coder and 'Apollo 13' Actor Receive Presidential Medals of Freedom, SpaceX scrubs Crew-6 astronaut launch due to ignition-fluid issue, Experience SpaceX's Crew-6 astronaut mission with these amazing photos, DNA from 4 American presidents will launch to deep space, Asteroid Ryugu is rich in organic molecules that can be building blocks of life, On This Day In Space: Feb. 26, 1966: 1st launch of Saturn 1B rocket, Your monthly guide to stargazing & space science, Subscribe today and save an extra 5% with code 'LOVE5', Issues delivered straight to your door or device. Mutual respect was across the board. 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. The studio hired a new stunt double, Aline Goodwin, to finish the broomstick-riding scene for Danko.[9]. American software engineer and businesswoman, American computer programmer, businessman, and philanthropist. Opposite Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, she played a heavily made-up witch in Comin' Round the Mountain, where her character and Costello go toe-to-toe with voodoo dolls made of each other. Managing Editor: and he said, 'What else? On December 23, 1938, Hamilton suffered a second-degree burn on her face and a third-degree burn on her hand during a second take of her fiery exit from Munchkinland in which the trap door's drop was delayed to eliminate the brief glimpse of it seen in the final edit. Her father, Thomas Storey, was the founder of the Stanford University School of Health. 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. The content of the programs was printed on continuous paper and stored in large folders. Not because of his acceptance of the new 'term' per se, but because we had earned his and the acceptance of the others in the room as being in an engineering field in its own right. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. The Directors verdict reached Neil on the radio: GO, Go ahead, free. Margaret Hamilton's net worth In those years, there were no programming languages like at the end of the 20th century. She was director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for NASA 's Apollo program. [10] She says her poet father and headmaster grandfather inspired her to include a minor in philosophy in her studies. DAAAE30-02-D-1020 and DAAB07-98-D-H502/0180, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ, 20032004. She lived in Manhattan for most of her adult life, and summered in a cottage on Cape Island, Southport, Maine. Click here if you want to see this biography in Spanish translation. It was intended to guide the spacecraft once they had achieved Earth orbit. A former schoolteacher, she worked as a character actor in films for seven years before she was offered the role that defined her public image. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! They were married on June 15, 1958, the summer after she graduated from Earlham. They married in the late 1950s, after she graduated in mathematics. Margaret Hamilton - Biography, Height & Life Story - Super Stars Bio Hamilton, now an independent computer scientist, described for MIT News in 2009 her contributions to the Apollo software which last month was added in its entirety to the code-sharing site GitHub: 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. "Every time the CPU approached overload, the software cleared out its entire queue of processes, restarted its functions; allowing only the highest priority ones to perform until the landing was completed," she said. Her solution: when you see a priority display, first count to What are the Van Allen Belts and why do they matter? From 1961 to 1963, she worked at MIT on an unknown aircraft trajectory tracking project. Her Gramercy Park neighbor Sybil Daneman reported that Hamilton loved children but they were often afraid to meet her because of her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. They're scared. [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. In that role, she took the lead on the software used to govern the flight dynamics of the Apollo spacecraft, which were used for six landing missions between 1969 and 1972. Hamilton played two credited roles in the famous film: Almira Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West. 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.. Hamilton left MIT in the mid-1970s to work in the private sector. The man had reached the Moon. She is a member of famous Actress with the age 83 years old group. [16] She moved on to another project in the summer of 1961, and hired and trained Ellen Fetter as her replacement.[12]. 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. Credit: Deansfa Marriage and family of Margaret Hamilton Armstrong had no time for lengthy explanations. 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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Copyright 2018-2023, All Rights Reserved Super Stars Bio. Searching to find out more about Margaret Hamilton? [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. !' In one of the critical moments of the Apollo 11 mission, the Apollo Guidance Computer, together with the on-board flight software, averted an abort of the landing on the Moon. Hamilton has a diverse background, including an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Earlham College in Indiana, and postgraduate work in meteorology at MIT. In this famous MIT lab, her team developed the navigation software for the Apollo Space Program. [38] Paul Curto, senior technologist who nominated Hamilton for a NASA Space Act Award, called Hamilton's work "the foundation for ultra-reliable software design".[23]. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Design & Development: Hamilton was cast after Gale Sondergaard, who was first considered for the role, albeit as a more glamorous witch with a musical scene, declined the role when the decision was made that the witch should appear ugly.[6]. Profiled in "American Classic Screen Interviews" (Scarecrow Press). We have a full Biography, Photos, Theatre Credits, and more! Dishonored Lady. Mutual respect was across the board. No Choice But to Be a Pioneer: The Story of Margaret Hamilton Margaret Hamilton was born December 9, 1902 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Jennie (Adams) and Walter Hamilton. She had a small role in the made-for-television film The Night Strangler (1973) and appeared as a befuddled neighbor on Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, who is a friend of the very similar Mary Wickes. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Played Aunt Eva on the radio series Ethel and Albert in the 1940s and 1950s . In 2019, she was awarded The Washington Award. [16] Hamilton also served as Director of the Software Engineering Division. Margaret Hamilton Computer Scientist MIT Computer scientist Margaret Hamilton poses with the Apollo guidance software she and her team developed at MIT. It was a memorable day when one of the most respected hardware gurus explained to everyone in a meeting that he agreed with me that the process of building software should also be considered an engineering discipline, just like with hardware. They have a daughter named Lauren. 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. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. CAPE ISLAND Tour boat operators sometimes entertained their passengers by referring to Cape Island as "Witch's Island." That's because the primary resident there, during summers from 1961 to 1985, was Margaret Hamilton, the actor who played the Wicked Witch of the West and Elmira Gulch in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.. Hamilton was initially hired as a programmer for this process but moved on into systems design. Margaret Brainard Hamilton (December 9, 1902 May 16, 1985) was an American actress and educator. This overloaded the central processing unit during the landing, but fortunately, the software recovered in the heated moments before Apollo 11 touched down. [22][16] Another part of her team designed and developed the systems software. 1. Her Code Got Humans on the MoonAnd Invented Software Itself Margaret Hamilton - Trakt Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. Four years later, she obtained the Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics at Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana (USA). A complete set of recovery programs was incorporated into the software. and they continued. It is ironic that her performance as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz (1939) was so scary to children, because her first job was as a kindergarten teacher. skywriting sequence at the Emerald City. I was the first one to get it to work. Had one child, son, Hamilton Wadsworth Meserve, on June 12, 1936. Hamilton and Ray Bolger were cast members in the 1966 fantasy film The Daydreamer, a collection of stories by Hans Christian Andersen. Thompson, Arthur A.; Strickland, A. J., (1996), "Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases", Last edited on 26 February 2023, at 16:40, Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, "001: A Full Life Cycle Systems Engineering and Software Development Environment", Universal Systems Language for Preventative Systems Engineering, A Formal Universal Systems Semantics for SysML, Universal Systems Language: Lessons Learned from Apollo, "President Obama Names Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom", "Former Earlham Student Had Role in Moon Flight", "2009 Outstanding Alumni and Distinguished Service Awards", "The Woman Who Taught Me Margaret Hamilton MAKERS Moment", "Margaret Hamilton: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Took Us to the Moon", "The statistical prediction of solutions of dynamic equations", "AGC Conference 1: Margaret Hamilton's introduction", "Scene at MIT: Margaret Hamilton's Apollo code", "NASA Engineers and Scientists-Transforming Dreams Into Reality", The History of Apollo On-board Guidance, Navigation, and Control, Keyboard and Display Program and Operation, "Moon landing memories:'Apollo 11 changed civilisation and I had a part in it', "Tales from the Lunar Module Guidance Computer", "Computer Got Loaded, letter to the editor of Datamation", Higher Order Software Evaluation and Critique, "Federal User Offers Free CAD/CAM Software", "And/Or Programs: A New Approach to Structured Programming", "Overview of Hamilton Technologies, Inc. (HTI) 001", "ICSE 2018 Plenary Sessions Margaret Hamilton", "What to Know About the Scientist who Invented the Term "Software Engineering", "NASA Engineers and Scientists Transforming Dreams Into Reality", "Margaret Hamilton: 2017 Fellow Biography", "Margaret Hamilton, the Engineer Who Took the Apollo to the Moon", "Her code got humans on the moon and invented software itself", "Software and a Woman at the Heart of Lunar Triumph", "A moonlit tribute to a moon landing icon", "Honour for software writer on Apollo moon mission", "White House honors two of tech's female pioneers", "Margaret Hamilton Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom", "The 2017 Fellow Award Acceptance Speech", "Lego's 'Women of NASA' toy set is finally on sale and it's already Amazon's best-selling toy", "Investiture of scientist Margaret Hamilton as an honorary doctor of the UPC", "Margaret Hamilton Accepts 2019 Washington Award Nomination", "Bard College - 2019 Honorary Degree Recipients", "Margaret Hamilton's sister shares her memories as Seattle's seniors celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing", "James Cox Hamilton, at 77; lawyer was quiet warrior for First Amendment", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Margaret_Hamilton_(software_engineer)&oldid=1141753509. A former schoolteacher, she worked as a character actor in films for seven years before she was offered the role that defined her public image. Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, Margaret Hamilton Biography | Fandango On August 17, 1936, Margaret Hamilton (ne Heafield) was born to Kenneth Heafield and Ruth Esther Heafield in Paoli, Indiana. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Heres how it works. Throughout the 1970s, Hamilton lived in New York City's Gramercy Park neighborhood and appeared on local (and some national) public-service announcements for organizations promoting the welfare of pets. She also published six books. We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 9 December. However, in By Your Leave (1934), she plays his housekeeper, and in Saratoga (1937), she has a colloquy with Morgan regarding a cosmetic product he invented (with side glances and eye rolls by Morgan as to its effect on her "beauty"). "[13] She appeared as herself in three episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, between 1975 and 1976, because Fred Rogers wanted his viewers to recognize the Wicked Witch was just a character and not something to be afraid of. [48] Others have used HOS to formalize the semantics of linguistic quantifiers,[49] and to formalize the design of reliable real-time embedded systems. [2] Before she turned to acting exclusively, her parents insisted she attend Wheelock College in Boston, which she did, later becoming a kindergarten teacher. Margaret had already built her resume with several performances in film before she came to her most memorable and astronomically successful role, Almira Gulch / The Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz (1939). [59] Over time the term "software engineering" gained the same respect as any other technical discipline. Besides her work in Apollo, she was part of MIT Lincoln Laboratory's Semi-Automatic Ground Environment Air Defense System, or SAGE. Margaret Hamilton | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos | AllMovie They had one son, Hamilton Wadsworth Meserve, whom she raised on her own. ], She married Paul Boynton Meserve on June 13, 1931, and made her debut on the New York City stage the following year. She portrayed the sister of Witchiepoo from H.R. Hamilton, M.; Hackler, W. R. (2004). Pres. It was her code that enabled the human race to travel to the moon and back. She played Morticia Addams' mother, Hester Frump, in three episodes of The Addams Family. Margaret Heafield Hamilton (born August 17, 1936) is an American computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner. [19] She later moved to Millbrook, New York. And sometimes when I go to schools, if we're in an auditorium, I'll do it. She did a stint as a What's My Line? We knew that. How Margaret Hamilton Helped Land NASA On The Moon - All That's Interesting By Maia Weinstock | MIT News Office In the early 1970s, she joined the cast of another CBS soap opera, As the World Turns, on which she played Miss Peterson, Simon Gilbey's assistant. At the time, computer science and software engineering were not yet established disciplines; instead, programmers learned on the job with hands-on experience. The mirrors at the Ivanpah plant were configured to create a picture of Hamilton and the Apollo 11 by moonlight. In the 1960s, Hamilton was a regular on another CBS soap opera, The Secret Storm, playing the role of Grace Tyrell's housekeeper, Katie. "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. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. After she recuperated, she said, "I won't sue, because I know how this business works, and I would never work again. At the time, no schools taught software engineering, so the team members had to work out any problems on their own. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. For her last stage role, she was cast as Madame Armfeldt in the Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music, singing the song "Liaisons" for the national tour costarring with Jean Simmons as her daughter Desiree. [16][18] These made her code incredibly reliable because they helped programmers identify and fix anomalies before they became major problems.[26]. marriedcelebrity; April 19, 2019; Celebrity Gossip; Born as Margaret Heafield, she is an American system engineer, computer scientist and a woman entrepreneur as well. In the episode, entitled "Triptych for a Witch," Hamilton played the title role. [54][55][56] Hamilton details how she came to make up the term "software engineering": When I first came up with the term, no one had heard of it before, at least in our world. We took our work seriously, many of us beginning this journey while still in our 20s. Updates? Margaret Hamilton was born December 9, 1902 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Jennie (Adams) and Walter Hamilton. "All of a sudden, the normal mission sequences were interrupted by priority displays of 1201 and 1202 alarms, giving the astronauts a go/no-go decision (to land or not to land)," she added. In The Paul Lynde Halloween Special (1976), she portrayed Lynde's housekeeper, reprising the Wicked Witch role, as well as introducing Lynde to the rock group Kiss. UConnToday, 23 April 2013. The computer was overloaded with interrupts caused by incorrectly phased power supplied to the lander's rendezvous radar. After only one crewed mission in Earth orbit Apollo 7 in early 1968 NASA elected to send Apollo 8's command module solo that December on an orbital mission to the moon, out of concerns that the Soviet Union would get there first. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. We had to find a way and we did. In a few seconds he had to decide whether to land on the moon despite the risk or abort the landing and return with the honey on his lips. As Neil Armstrong was already preparing to bring the ship down, the computer started displaying two errors: error 1201 and error 1202. Margaret Hamilton was born December 9, 1902 in Cleveland, Ohio to Jennie and Walter Hamilton. Her "priority display" innovation had created a knock-on risk that astronaut and computer would slip out of synch just when it mattered most. In 1973, Hamilton produced the stage production of An Evening with the Bourgeoisie. For this Laboratory, she developed codes for new programming routines. The Opportunity of a Lifetime. For her work, she was honored with the Presidential Medal. Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". was ranked 99th in the 2005 American Film Institute survey of the most memorable movie quotes. Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 360-361. The picture made a terrible impression of some kind on them, sometimes a ghastly impression, but most of them got over it, I guess because when I talk like the Witch, and when I laugh, there is a hesitation and then they clap. Apollo 9 tested out the lunar module and command module together in Earth orbit for the first time, and then the two spacecraft were tested again in lunar orbit for Apollo 10. In the early 1960s Hamilton joined MITs Lincoln Laboratory, where she was involved in the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) project, the first U.S. air defense system. As she grew, she quickly developed a passion for mathematics and decided to work in this domain. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, presented on November 22, 2016 by the President of the United States, for her brilliant work during the Apollo missions in the 1960s. [63] Hamilton's innovations go beyond the feats of playing an important role in getting humans to the Moon. Margaret HAMILTON - Scientific Women Her name was clearly visible when the entire Apollo 11 source code was released on GitHub in 2016; according to MIT, the first full line of the software read, "SUBMITTED: MARGARET H. HAMILTON DATE: 28 MAR 69 / M.H.HAMILTON, COLOSSUS PROGRAMMING LEADER / APOLLO GUIDANCE AND NAVIGATION.".