Chapter 1 Nancy Grace Roman worked on many projects at NASA including the Orbiting Solar Observatory model pictured here STARGAZING STUDENT Nancy Grace Roman always knew she wanted to be an astronomer Most women of her time did not aim for scientific careers but she didn't let that stop her She studied astronomy and worked hard to prove herself She even played
a role in the development of an incredible piece of scientific equipment the Hubble Space Telescope STUDYING THE STARS Born in Nashville Tennessee in 1925 Nancy Grace moved many times throughout her childhood because of her father's job working for an oil company Her father Irwin Roman was a geophysicist a scientist that studies the physical processes that are going on in Earth He often answered Nancy Grace's questions about science But it was her mother Georgia Smith Roman who inspired her passion for the stars Her mother was not a scientist but she was interested in the world around her She took her daughter on nature walks pointing out birds and plants She showed Nancy Grace the constellations and the northern lights in the night sky When Nancy Grace was about eleven the family moved to Reno Nevada There she started her own neighborhood astronomy club The girls in the club studied constellations and read about astronomy The Roman family moved to Baltimore Maryland in 1937 and Nancy Grace went to a girls high school there By then she was already pursing her goal of becoming an astronomer
3 TECH TALK I never seriously considered any occupation other than astronomy A piece of artwork I did when I was in third grade shows a girl gazing out the window at the night sky next to a poem about looking at the stars Nancy Grace Roman MOVING FORWARD Nancy Grace had her parents cautious support as she planned her path into the future Her mother thought she should be open to studying other subjects too She wanted her daughter to be happy But she did not really believe science was the right field for a woman Most women at that time did not pursue higher education They married and had families instead Nancy Grace's high school guidance counselors seemed to feel the same way They found her interest in science baffling The only encouragement Nancy Grace found in high school was from one physics teacher who wanted to help The problem was that the teacher didn't really know physics The woman was a business education teacher who had been asked to take over the physics class
Despite all of this Nancy Grace worked hard to graduate from high school in three years instead of four After high school she chose to attend Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania The school interested her for several reasons but most important the college had a strong astronomy program Nancy Grace back row second from left with some of her schoolmates at Western High School in Baltimore Maryland
