Cynthia Camper Harvey -Murray

Mrs. Harvey-Murray, who was 87 died Sunday at Manor Care Roland Park. A trailblazer throughout her career, she became the first African American mathematician employed at the David Taylor Model Basin (DTMB) , Research and Development Center, supersonic wind tunnel test facility, Carderock, Maryland in 1951. The following year she joined a team that built a computer for DTMB for which she was the first programmer and author of the programing primer. Cynthia moved to Westinghouse in 1955-62 where she became the first African American female engineer and supervisor of an engineering group in the Analytical Engineering Section, Westinghouse Electric Corp. Defense and Space Center. Sepia Magazine featured her in their May, 1959 issue in the article, “She Calculates for Missiles: Baltimore mother does top secret work involving U.S. rocket program." The article displayed photos that were part glamorous and part technical document. Entering the world of college education in 1965 she began working at Morgan State University where she established the Computer Science degree program. In 1981 she supported the linking of all the academic buildings to DECNET, BITNET and the Internet. As advisor to the Society for the Advancement of Computer Science (SACS), since 1966 she helped start the careers of thousand of students and future professionals. Between 1993 and 1995 Cynthia accepted a position from Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) / National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Greenbelt, Maryland as the Technical Coordinator, Minority Universities Space Interdisciplinary Network (MU-SPIN). In 1996 the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) produced the television documentary Minerva’s Machine: Women and Computing, which profiled Cynthia’s career in depth and featured her as one of the most important women pioneers in the field of computing and computer science. In that same year she and third husband Dr. Wintson Murray co-founded the Caribbean American Research Institute (CARI) which led to the establishment of Tobago Community College in Trinidad and Tobago, the first of its kind on the Island of Tobago. Born in Baltimore City’s Sand Town neighborhood she was a graduate of Douglass High School in 1946 and receive a degree in Math from West Virginia State College and a Masters Degree from Johns Hopkins. She had been a member of a number of fraternal organizations including the Alpha Kappa Alpha, the Morgan State University Women, the Charms, and was a board member of the Young Victorian Theater Company in Baltimore. She was a competitive player of Bridge winning numerous trophies and later partnered with second husband Arthur R. Harvey. She also was fond of ballet, history, philosophy, law, language and art. Mrs. Harvey Murray is survived by a daughter Michelle Harvey Hill (Bob), of Dewitt Michigan; two sons, Irvin Cannaday III (Jo Ann), of Pikesville and Lamont Weston Harvey (Sewit), of Elkridge; eight grand children and three great grandchildren.

Tributes

Cynthia Camper Harvey -Murray

February 8, 1929 - July 31, 2016