Ola B. Watford

Ola Mae Bryant Watford (March 13, 1927 – October 18, 1997) was an American geophysicist, associated with the United States Department of Commerce for over twenty years.

Ola B. Watford
A smiling black woman with dark hair in tousled curls, wearing a coat with notched lapels and a white turtleneck
Ola B. Watford, from a 1972 publication of the NOAA
Born
Ola Mae Bryant

March 13, 1927
Kinston, North Carolina
DiedOctober 18, 1997
OccupationGeophysicist

Early life and education

Bryant was from Kinston, North Carolina, the daughter of Benjamin Cleveland Bryant and Georgia S. Taylor Bryant. Her father was a Baptist minister, publisher and tobacco farmer. She earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Johnson C. Smith University in 1946, at age 19,[1] where she was a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.[2] She moved to Washington, D.C. for further education.[3] She completed a master's degree at the University of Northern Colorado later in life.[4]

Career

Watford taught high school math for a few years as a young woman, then began working for the federal government as a clerk at the Naval Oceanographic Office in 1951. She moved to the National Geodetic Survey in 1953.[5] She was described in 1973 as the only woman geophysicist employed by the United States Department of Commerce, when she worked at the National Geophysical and Solar Terrestrial Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, charting and analyzing data on geomagnetism. She also served on the Environmental Science Services Administration's Equal Employment Opportunity Committee,[6] and was the Federal Woman's Program representative for the Environmental Data Service.[3][7] In 1973 she accompanied a traveling USGS exhibit about the earth sciences, and attended the meeting of the Geological Society of America.[8] By 1981, she was chief of the Space Management and Design branch of the NOAA in Rockville, Maryland.[9][10]

Watford was first-author on one journal article, "Isomagnetic patterns in the regions of the 1965 dip poles" (1965), with W. A. Francis, G. B. Walker, and E. B. Fabiano.[11]

Personal life

Ola Mae Bryant married economist Alven Wardell Watford in 1947. They had six children, five sons and a daughter.[3] Her husband died in 1991, and she died in 1997, aged 70 years. Her grave is with her husband's, in Quantico National Cemetery.

References
  1. "Challenge Issued to Educated People; At Johnson C. Smith U. Finals". The Charlotte Observer. 1946-05-21. p. 20. Retrieved 2021-10-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. Johnson C. Smith University, The Golden Bull (1946 yearbook).
  3. "Distaff Dynamo". NOAA Week. 4: 14–15. July 1973.
  4. "Watford Credits Education for Opening Doors". Kinston Free Press. February 21, 2007. p. 15. Retrieved October 29, 2021 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  5. "ESSA at Work". ESSA News. 6: 2. January 16, 1970.
  6. "Equal Employment Opportunity Committee Established at ESSA". ESSA News. 6: 2. 1970.
  7. "Mrs. Watford Back to School for Day's Teaching Assignment". NOAA Week. 3: 4. March 31, 1972.
  8. "Notes About People". NOAA Week. 5: 3. January 18, 1974.
  9. Warren, Wini (1999). Black women scientists in the United States. Bloomington : Indiana University Press. pp. 264–265. ISBN 978-0-253-33603-3 – via Internet Archive.
  10. Southwest Fisheries Center (U.S.) (1981). Monthly Report. The Center. p. 32.
  11. Watford, O. B.; Francis, W. A.; Walker, G. B.; Fabiano, E. B. (1965). "Isomagnetic patterns in the regions of the 1965 dip poles". Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union. 46 (4): 661–664. doi:10.1029/TR046i004p00661. ISSN 2324-9250.
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