Meredith College Efforts Lead to Historical Marker Honoring Mathematics Pioneer

The efforts of Meredith College history students have contributed to the successful approval of a North Carolina Highway Historical Marker honoring NASA pioneer Virginia Layden Tucker. The new marker was approved on December 16, 2025.

Students in Professor of History Dan Fountain’s Spring 2025 “Meredith College History” class conducted the research behind the successful proposal.  Fountain is the director of Meredith’s public history program.

“Virginia Layden Tucker, born in 1909 in Hertford, North Carolina, was a pioneering mathematician who led the human computer division at NASA and advanced aeronautical research and women’s roles in science and engineering,” Fountain said. “Tucker was a graduate of the Woman’s College (now UNC Greensboro) and recruited Meredith College students for the crucial mathematical work at NASA.”  

After the course was completed, Fountain and Professor of History Angela Robbins collaborated with UNCG archivist Erin Lawrimore to bolster and polish the students’ draft proposal into its final form. 

“This is the second successful marker proposal that drew upon the research contributions of Meredith’s public history students and the second acknowledging the contributions of women mathematicians to the space race and national defense,” Fountain said. 

The first marker commemorated all of North Carolina’s “Human Computers” and was erected in September 2023 near the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.  Read the entry about the Human Computers marker

The marker for Virginia Tucker will be erected adjacent to UNCG’s campus at a future date. Meredith representatives plan to attend the marker unveiling ceremony to celebrate this contribution to North Carolina history.

The marker text will read:

Virginia Tucker

1909-1985

Pioneer Mathematician in aeronautics. Advanced all women’s roles in STEM, 1935-1974. Graduated from Woman’s College, now UNCG, in 1930.

Learn more about the North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program

Image of Virginia Tucker courtesy of UNCG, newspaper article announcing Virginia Tucker’s appointment to NACA, from the September 6, 1935 edition of the Perquimins Weekly, courtesy of North Carolina Digital Heritage Center.