Remembering A Life

"She made a mean beef Stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off from work to raise three children. 'The world's best mom', her son Matthew said".
Obituary, The New York Times -- Yvonne Brill, rocket scientist

No, really, this woman was incredibly extraordinary, exceptional before her time. Her time dated from working in rocket science in the mid-1940s, that's how much ahead of the times this woman was. Her fine scientific mind had another component; that of a wife and a mother sensitive to the needs of her family.

She has died at the age of eighty-eight, in Princeton, New Jersey. Celebrated for her development of a thruster used for positioning satellites in orbit above Earth. Celebrated otherwise as a mother whose passing is mourned by her children. In her time she was the only woman involved in rocket science when she was involved with the initial designs for an American satellite.

In her extremely important role as a mother, however, she chose to step away from the mind-bending brilliance of rocket science to devote her undivided time to raising her family of three children. When she was satisfied that she had performed that maternal obligation fully, she returned after a decade-and-a-half to formulate plans for her greatest achievement.

She worked for NASA in the 1980s, and was awarded the National Medal of Technology in 2011 by President Barack Obama during a White House ceremony acknowledging the design of her rocket system. The New York Times obituary which dwelled on her domestic accomplishments as much as her scientific prowess, unleashed a storm of controversy on social media.

People wrote of their outrage that this extraordinary woman, an accomplished and decorated scientist in a discipline that celebrates those rare minds of genius, would have her obituary pay tribute to her role as wife and above all, mother. Far too fundamental, a mere veneer over her far greater accomplishments as a scientist. Outrageously sexist.

Her son Matthew, celebrating The world's best mom", must surely be sighing, thinking of his mother's choice deliberation in surrendering herself to motherhood in all its complexities of nurturance, laying aside temporarily the scientist in herself, giving more than ample indication of which role she gave priority to.

Knowing that, when she felt she had accomplished what she had set out to do in that starring role, she would be prepared to resume her fruitfully rewarding life as a rocket scientist. The obituary critics are dead wrong.