they would turn in their graves

Katherine Johnson Today I'm going to point you to katherinejohnson.net, where you can read about Katherine Johnson, the mathematician and computer scientist who broke barriers for women and African Americans while advancing science, mathematics and space exploration. Be sure to read as many articles in the PRESS and ARTICLE LINKS as you can (some of them are behind paywalls). More information is also available at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Johnson , along with its References and Further Reading. A woman and a mathematician, I had never heard of Katherine Johnson until I saw the movie Hidden Figures . Then I made it my business to find out as much about her as I could learn. I never had the opportunity to meet Katherine myself, of course, but I am only two degrees of separation from her. When my friend Imara Dawson was young, Katherine was his math tutor. (Imara is also how I can claim two degrees of separation from the late Maya Angelou, who was a friend of his family...

Star Trek Klingon artwork by Gennie Summers Today is Free Comic Book Day. Of the 273,201 individuals logged in my Reunion file, containing all the people I’ve connected to my children, there is one comic book artist who stands out. I never met Gennie Summers, but she was my fifth cousin once removed. Our nearest common ancestors were Matthias Hollopeter and Barbara (Rusz) Hollopeter, who were our immigrant ancestors; they arrived in the American colonies about 1754.   Ethel Genevieve “Gennie” Summers was born in 1924 in Nebraska, the only child of Alvin Dale Summers and Ethel Mae (Smith) Summers. In 1930, Gennie was living with her parents in Crescent, Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Her father was a farmer. The 1940 census located Gennie residing in her parents’ home in West Benson, Douglas County, Nebraska. She was a senior in high school. Gennie’s father died in 1986, at the age of ninety years. Her mother passed away in 1995, when she was ninety-two years old.   When Gennie pa...