Raye Jean Montague

In 2019 we honored Raye Jean Montague, the ‘Hidden Figure’ of the Navy Who Designed Navy Ships for over 30 years.

Raye Jean Montague was a trailblazer in our industry; not only for innovation but for the great example she set for future generations during her career. The girl who faced racism and sexism in the segregated South, where she rode in the back of the bus and was denied entry to a college engineering program because she was black, became an internationally registered professional engineer and shattered the glass ceiling at the Navy when she became the first female program manager of ships. She earned the civilian equivalent of the rank of captain.

In a breakthrough achievement, she also revolutionized the way the Navy designed ships and submarines using a computer program she developed in the early 1970s. It would have normally taken two years to produce a rough design of a ship on paper, but during the heat of the Vietnam War Ms. Montague was given one month to design the specifications for a frigate. She did it in 18 hours and 26 minutes. At the height of her career, she was briefing the Joint Chiefs of Staff every month and teaching at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Many of her ship designs are still in use. Raye Jean Montague was instrumental in creating the initial designs for the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier and the Navy’s first land craft helicopter and assault ship. Montague’s last project for the Navy was the Seawolf nuclear submarine.

A link to a video her son made for us is here: https://youtu.be/qnuUKUhxBHY