Monday, July 20, 2015

BlackPast.org Blog: Claudia Alexander (1959-2015) supervised the Galileo mission to Jupiter; Renee Powell (b. 1946) is only Black Woman in St. Andrew's Golf Club



Claudia Alexander (1959-2015)

Renee Powell (b. 1946)


Hazel Singer:

Claudia Alexander passed away this month. She was a brilliant, pioneering planetary scientist who worked for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. She supervised the Galileo mission to Jupiter and "managed the United States' role in the international comet-chasing Rosetta project". She conducted landmark research on the evolution and interior physics of comets, Jupiter and its moons, solar wind, and numerous other topics.


Renee Powell is one of only seven women, and the only Black woman, to be inducted this past week into the membership of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club in St. Andrews, Scotland, the home of golf. 

After Althea Gibson (professional tennis player and golfer), Powell is the second Black woman to play on the LPGA tour. Powell's start in golf was the result of her father Bill Powell's pioneering efforts in building Clearview Golf Club, in East Canton, Ohio to give African Americans access to golf. He began by acquiring enough land to build a nine-hole golf course and finally a full 18-hole course. Today, Powell runs the Club.

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