Monday, July 23, 2012

Sally Ride

Oh, damn. From the Times comes the sad news that Sally Ride, the first woman in the US astronaut corps, has died of pancreatic cancer at the young age of 61. She was a physicist, a rare enough thing for women of her age; she was so respected that she sat on both investigatory boards following the destruction of the shuttles Challenger and Columbia. She did a tremendous amount for women and girls in the sciences, as a visible scientist and through many major efforts.

The very private Dr. Ride is survived by her partner of 27 years, Dr. Tam O'Shaughnessy, who is also the CEO of Sally Ride Science. I think that might be for Tamara, after a look at the company web site.

2 comments:

Civic Center said...

You mean to say Ride, Sally, Ride was a lesbian? Wow. That's sort of perfect.

Lisa Hirsch said...

It is.

There was a husband at some point, a fellow astronaut, so lesbian, bi, dunno.