The Black Woman Behind GPS Just Died At 95 Dr. Gladys West, the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for the Global Positioning System (GPS), passed away on Saturday, January 17, 2026, at the age of 95. She died peacefully at her Virginia home, surrounded by family and friends. Born Gladys Mae Brown on October 27, 1930, in Sutherland, Virginia, West grew up in the segregated Jim Crow South, working on her family's tobacco farm in Dinwiddie County. Despite the systemic barriers