What’s FSC’s Connection to the Movie Hidden Figures?

January 30, 2017

You wouldn’t have recognized her from the movie, Hidden Figures. But the character played by Taraji Henson (star of TV’s Empire) is based on Dr. Katherine G. Johnson, who graced the Farmingdale campus in 1998 when she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the State University of New York.

Katherine Johnson, as a member of NASA, is the woman whose mathematical prowess produced the trajectory for Alan Shepard, the first American to go into space. She also working on the math for John Glenn’s orbit in 1962 and the Apollo 11 flight to the moon.

A prodigy, Dr. Johnson entered school when she was 10, graduating at 14 and finishing her BS in mathematics and French while still a teen.

Dr. Katherine Johnson accepting an Honorary Doctor of Laws, 1998

College Council Chair Patricia Hill Williams remembers meeting Dr. Johnson, saying “It was quite an inspiration to all of us to hear her talk about her career in math before STEM was on the forefront of our consciousness. ”

Others remember her warmth and graciousness, gifting the Office of Institutional Advancement with a crab paperweight from her town of Hampton, VA.

Dr. Johnson’s advice to graduates is as valuable today as it was nearly 20 years ago: “Who are you? You must find within yourself that you are as good as the best but no finer than the rest.”