Margaret Hamilton had no trouble reconciling her career at NASA with her mothering role. Managing Editor: (Apollo 13 aborted before landing due to an explosion in the command module's service area.). Her crisp voice with rapid but clear enunciation was another trademark. 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 program's guidance system. She was a distant cousin of Neil Hamilton, with whom she appeared in By Your Leave (1934). Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Houston! We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 9 December. In this famous MIT lab, her team developed the navigation software for the Apollo Space Program. 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. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". [14] On October 30, 1975, she guest-starred on the radio revival series CBS Radio Mystery Theater. She spent 11 days in hospital and her legs were permanently scarred. Margaret Elaine Hamilton (born Heafield on August 17, 1936) is an American computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner. She was contributing writer for Space.com (opens in new tab) for 10 years before joining full-time, freelancing since 2012. After she recuperated, she said, "I won't sue, because I know how this business works, and I would never work again. She also gained recognition for her work as an advocate of causes designed to benefit children and animals and retained a lifelong commitment to public education. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The pipe exploded on the third take of the scene. When I was the beginner they gave it to me as well. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. A few months after filming Oz, she appeared in Babes in Arms (1939) as Jeff Steele's aunt, Martha, a society do-gooder who made it her goal to send the gang of child actors, led by Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, to a work farm. The award included $37,200, the largest amount awarded to any individual in NASA's history. They were married on June 15, 1958, the summer after she graduated from Earlham. Margaret Hamilton was born on August 17, 1936. I said to myself, 'Oh, boy, The Wizard of Oz! [16][18] These made her code incredibly reliable because they helped programmers identify and fix anomalies before they became major problems.[26]. Hamilton costarred opposite Buster Keaton and Richard Cromwell in a 1940s spoof of the long-running local melodrama The Drunkard, titled The Villain Still Pursued Her. Margaret Hamilton Storey (July 31, 1900 - October 18, 1960) was an American museum curator, herpetologist and ichthyologist.She worked for the Stanford University Natural History Museum for over 25 years. (196566; Hamilton had been offered the role of Grandmama, but turned it down. Between 1969 and 1972, the Apollo program carried out 22 missions: 19 with total success, 2 with partial success and 1 with failure. [2], Margaret Elaine Heafield was born August 17, 1936, in Paoli, Indiana,[3] to Kenneth Heafield and Ruth Esther Heafield (ne Partington). "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. As Neil Armstrong was already preparing to bring the ship down, the computer started displaying two errors: error 1201 and error 1202. Hat, Coat and Glove. [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. She coined the term software engineer because she felt that the work she and her team were doing was just as important and just as much engineering as the other work on the Apollo spacecraft. [1], On November 22, 2016, Hamilton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from president Barack Obama for her work leading to the development of on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo Moon missions. She later founded two software companiesHigher Order Software in 1976 and Hamilton Technologies in 1986, both in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She appeared regularly in supporting roles in films until the early 1950s and sporadically thereafter. I will return to work on one condition no more fireworks!" 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. Your email address will not be published. She subsequently directed and supervised the developments of the Skylab space station mission. [22][16] Another part of her team designed and developed the systems software. Without exaggeration, it could be said that the heroes of the arrival to the Moon were four: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins and Margaret Hamilton. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. At the time, no schools taught software engineering, so the team members had to work out any problems on their own. This brilliant mathematician, systems engineer, and computational scientist, was Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory. For her work, she was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. ", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. 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. [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]. In the episode, entitled "Triptych for a Witch," Hamilton played the title role. In 2009, she received the Outstanding Alumni Award by. They liked to kid me about my radical ideas. Danko made the fiery entrance to Munchkinland, not Hamilton. [7] Studio executives cut some of Hamilton's more frightening scenes, worrying they would frighten children too much. 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. She served on the Beverly Hills Board of Education from 1948 to 1951 and was a Sunday school teacher during the 1950s. We had to find a way and we did. We knew that. Discover Margaret Hamilton's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. 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. She notably wrote software for a program to identify enemy aircraft. Everything was done based on codes, so that they did not occupy too much space in the small memories of the computers, which were NOT made of silicon, but were housed in iron cores. Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 360-361. The contract was awarded just weeks before then-President John F. Kennedy announced that he planned to have humans on the moon by the end of the decade. [20][41] They created a product called USE.IT, based on the HOS methodology they developed at MIT. and he said, 'What else? Also learn how She earned most of Margaret Hamilton networth? Devising, writing, testing, and testing these routines was quite commendable. Hamilton, M.; Hackler, W. R. (2004). Margaret Heafield Hamilton was born on August 17, 1936, in Paoli, Indiana. If the computer hadn't recognized this problem and taken recovery action, I doubt if Apollo 11 would have been the successful moon landing it was. Garland visited Hamilton while the latter recuperated at home looking after her son. Hamilton never remarried. In 2019, she was awarded the Intrepid Lifetime Achievement Award. Having started on the stage in the early 1930s, she began to work extensively in the theater after leaving Los Angeles. They have a daughter named Lauren. I said, 'Yes?' She graduated from Hancock High School and studied at the University . It was her code that enabled the human race to travel to the moon and back. [13] Hamilton continued acting regularly until 1982; her last roles were two guest appearances as veteran journalist Thea Taft (in 1979 and 1982) on Lou Grant. We knew that. [23] This included error detection and recovery software such as restarts and the Display Interface Routines (also known as the Priority Displays), which Hamilton designed and developed. She also published six books. 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. [37] Jack Garman, a NASA computer engineer in mission control, recognized the meaning of the errors that were presented to the astronauts by the priority displays and shouted, "Go, go!" She had three grandchildren, Christopher, Scott, and Margaret. By Maia Weinstock | MIT News Office 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. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. The mirrors at the Ivanpah plant were configured to create a picture of Hamilton and the Apollo 11 by moonlight. From 1961 to 1963, Hamilton worked on the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) Project at the MIT Lincoln Lab,[14] where she was one of the programmers who wrote software for the prototype AN/FSQ-7 computer (the XD-1), used by the U.S. Air Force to search for possibly unfriendly aircraft. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. [17], Hamilton's early experience as a teacher fueled a lifelong interest in educational issues. Credit: Deansfa Marriage and family of Margaret Hamilton She loved and doted upon children all her life. In March 1986, she founded Hamilton Technologies, Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is best known for playing the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz.In movies, she often played older, unmarried women from New England who was extremely practical but did not enjoy jokes. After graduating in 1958, she taught high-school mathematics for a short time. From 1961 to 1963, she worked at MIT on an unknown aircraft trajectory tracking project. 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. [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. August 17, 2016. Check out Margaret Hamilton's Bio Now It was intended to guide the spacecraft once they had achieved Earth orbit. By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. [4], Hamilton then joined the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory at MIT, which worked on the Apollo Space Mission. For Hamilton, although Apollo 11 was monumental, she relished the challenge of doing her job for it. 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. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. was ranked 99th in the 2005 American Film Institute survey of the most memorable movie quotes. They like to hear it but they 'don't' like to hear it. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. [24] She worked to gain hands-on experience during a time when computer science courses were uncommon and software engineering courses did not exist. Even with her extensive film career, Hamilton took roles in whatever medium she could get if she was free, making her soap opera debut as the nasty Mrs. Sayre on Valiant Lady, who schemed to prevent her daughter from marrying the heroine's son. She is a member of famous Actress with the age 83 years old group. 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. 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. American software engineer and businesswoman, American computer programmer, businessman, and philanthropist. It even printed out its answers in Latin and Greek. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. [20] Hamilton's team was responsible for developing in-flight software,[21] which included algorithms designed by various senior scientists for the Apollo command module, Apollo lunar module, and the subsequent Skylab. That has been my favorite book since I was four.' For her work, she was honored with the Presidential Medal. Early life [ edit] Would spoof her famous role of The Wicked Witch of The West in a 1976 Paul Lynde Halloween Special for television. 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. But a software incident almost derailed the landing, as Hamilton recalled in a 2009 interview with MIT. Quote her most famous line, however, and watch their eyes blink awake with recognition: "I'll get you my pretty! As an adult, she worked on NASA's Apollo program, creating computer programs to guide spacecraft to and from the moon. Later in life, she would comment on the role of the witch in a light-hearted fashion. "The award included the largest financial award that NASA had ever presented to any individual up to that point. In the 1960s, Hamilton was a regular on another CBS soap opera, The Secret Storm, playing the role of Grace Tyrell's housekeeper, Katie. Play Girl. After graduation she married her first husband, James Cox Hamilton, and . 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.