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'''Mary Sherman Morgan''' (November 4, 1921 – August 4, 2004) was a U.S. [[Rocket propellant|rocket fuel]] scientist credited with the invention of the liquid fuel [[Hydyne]] in 1957, which powered the [[Jupiter-C]] rocket that boosted the United States' first satellite, [[Explorer 1]].
==Early life and education==
The second youngest of six children, Mary Sherman was born to Michael and Dorothy Sherman on their farm in [[Ray, North Dakota]]. In 1939, she graduated as her high school’s [[valedictorian]].<ref> Alumni Records: 1936-1940, Ray High School, Nesson 2 School District, Williams County, ND</ref> She then enrolled at North Dakota's Minot State University as a [[chemistry]] major.<ref> Alumni Records, Minot State University, Minot, Ward County, ND</ref>
==Career==
{{Citation Needed|date=June 2013}}<!-- Entire section reads as Original Research-->
During college, [[World War II]] brokenout and as a result of men going overseas, the United States soon developed a shortage of chemists and other scientists. A local employment recruiter heard that Sherman had some experience with chemistry, and offered her a job at a local factory in Cleveland. He would not tell her what product the factory made, or what her job would be—only that she would be required to obtain a 'top secret' security clearance.  Short on money, she decided to take the job even though it would mean having to postpone her college education. The job turned out to be at the Plum Brook Ordnance Works munitions factory, charged with the responsibility of manufacturing explosives trinitrotoluene (TNT), dinitrotoluene (DNT), and pentolite. The site produced more than one billion pounds of ordnance throughout World War II.<ref>US Dept of Defense, Formerly Used Defense Sites, Site Number: G05OH0018</ref>
Mary Sherman became pregnant in 1943 out of wedlock. At that time she was living with an aunt and cousin in Huron, Ohio. In 1944, she gave birth to a daughter, Mary G Sherman<ref>April 1944 Birth Records, St Vincent's Hospital, Philadelphia, PA</ref> whom she later gave up for adoption to her cousin Mary Hibbard and her husband, Irving. The child was renamed Ruth Esther.<ref>Final Decree, June 8, 1946: Probate Court Records, Sandusky, Erie County, Ohio</ref>
After spending the war years designing explosives for the military, she applied for a job at [[North American Aviation]], and was employed in their [[Pratt_%26_Whitney_Rocketdyne#History_of_the_company|Rocketdyne Division]], based in [[Canoga Park, California]].<ref name="Lerner">Lerner, Preston, "Soundings: She Put The High In Hydyne". [[Air & Space]] Smithsonian Magazine, March 2009, Vol.23, No.6, pp.10, ISSN 0886-2257.</ref> Soon after being hired, she was promoted to Theoretical Performance Specialist, a job that required her to mathematically calculate the expected performance of new rocket propellants.<ref name="Lerner" /> Out of nine hundred engineers, she was the only woman, and one of only a few without a college degree.<ref name="Morgan" />
While working at North American Aviation, she met her future husband, George Richard Morgan, a Mechanical Engineering graduate from [[Caltech]].  Together they had four children—George, Stephen, Monica and Karen.<ref name="Morgan">Morgan, George. [http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/CaltechNews/articles/v42/lady.html America's First Lady of Rocketry], Caltech News, California Institute of Technology, Vol.42, No.1.</ref>
==Space race era==
In 1957, the Soviet Union and the United States had set a goal of placing satellites into Earth orbit as part of a worldwide scientific celebration known as the [[International Geophysical Year]].<ref name=Dickson>Dickson, Paul: “Sputnik, The Shock of the Century”. Walker & Company. 2001</ref>  In this endeavor the United States effort was called [[Vanguard (rocket)|Project Vanguard]].<ref name=Dickson/> The Soviet Union successfully launched the [[Sputnik 1|Sputnik]] satellite on October 4, 1957, an event followed soon after by a very public and disastrous explosion of a [[Vanguard (rocket)|Vanguard]] rocket. Political pressure forced U.S. politicians to allow a former German rocket scientist, [[Wernher von Braun]],<ref>Bob Ward: “Dr. Space: The Life of Wernher von Braun”.  Naval Institute Press, 2005</ref> to prepare his [[Redstone (rocket)|Redstone]]/[[Jupiter C]] rocket for an orbital flight. When von Braun’s team members discovered that their rocket would not be powerful enough to reach orbit, they awarded a contract to North American Aviation's Rocketdyne Division to come up with a more powerful fuel.<ref>Robert S. Kraemer & Vince Wheelock: “Rocketdyne: powering humans into space”. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. 2006, (pgs 43–44)</ref>
Due to her expertise and experience with new rocket propellants, Morgan was named the technical lead on the contract. Morgan's work resulted in a new invention, [[Hydyne]], a propellant that succeeded in launching America’s first satellite, Explorer I, into orbit on January 31, 1958.<ref name="Morgan" /> Despite its importance to the Explorer launch, the U.S. quickly switched to more powerful fuels and Hydyne was only used once.<ref name="MRP2">NASA. [http://history.nasa.gov/SP-45/ch4.htm The Mercury-Redstone Project], p. 3-2, 4-42.</ref>
==Death==
Mary Sherman Morgan died on August 4, 2004, as a result of complications related to emphysema.
==Popular culture==
Mary Sherman Morgan was the subject of a semi-biographical stage play written by her son, George Morgan. The play, ''Rocket Girl'', was produced by Theater Arts at California Institute of Technology (TACIT), directed by Brian Brophy, and ran at the California Institute of Technology ([[Caltech]]) in Pasadena, California on November 17, 2008.<ref name="Lerner" /><ref name="Morgan" />
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* [http://www.musicboxint.com/rocketgirl.htm Rocket Girl Celebrates Smash World Premiere At Caltech In Pasadena]
* TACIT (Theater Arts at CIT). [http://www.tacit.caltech.edu/]
* Brophy, Brian; Filmography. [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0112393/]
{{Persondata
|NAME=Sherman Morgan, Mary
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=[[United States|American]]
|DATE OF BIRTH=November 4, 1921
|PLACE OF BIRTH=Ray, North Dakota
|DATE OF DEATH=August 4, 2004
|PLACE OF DEATH=Simi Valley, California
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Mary Sherman}}
[[Category:Rocket scientists]]
[[Category:American chemists]]
[[Category:2004 deaths]]
[[Category:1921 births]]

Revision as of 10:57, 22 June 2013

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