Though rarely mentioned in history books, Raye Montague, a naval engineer from Little Rock, Arkansas, transformed the future of shipbuilding in the United States Navy.
With that feat, she shattered barriers of race, gender, and technology in the process.
Born in 1935 in segregated Little Rock, Montague grew up at a time when Black children were denied equal access to education, and women were rarely encouraged to pursue careers in science or engineering. But that didn’t stop her.
Her interest in engineering began at the age of seven, when her grandfather took her to see a captured German submarine during a World War II exhibition tour. She was captivated.
“I looked through the periscope and saw all these dials and mechanisms and said, ‘Mother, I’m going to be an engineer,’” Montague once recalled. But her mother had to gently explain that such opportunities didn’t exist for Black girls in Arkansas at the time.
Despite those societal limitations, Montague excelled in school and graduated from Merrill High School in Little Rock in 1952. Though she wanted to attend the University of Arkansas to study engineering, the school was still segregated and did not admit Black students into its engineering program.
So instead, she attended Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical & Normal College (now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff), a historically Black college, and earned a degree in business. But she never gave up on engineering.
Breaking Barriers in the U.S. Navy
Montague moved to Washington, D.C., and began working for the U.S. Navy in 1956 as a clerk typist. However, her position put her close to the engineers and computers she’d long dreamed of working with. Through keen observation and determination, she taught herself how to program the UNIVAC I computer system—one of the earliest commercial computers in use at the time.
Her tenacity paid off. Over the next decade, Montague worked her way up through the Naval Sea Systems Command, eventually becoming a computer systems analyst and then an engineer. But it was in 1971 that she truly made history.
At the time, ship design was an excruciatingly long process. Engineers typically took two years to design a draft of a naval ship using manual calculations and physical drafting tools.
But after being assigned to streamline the process for a new class of frigates—and facing immense pressure to deliver—Montague did what no one else had done: she used computer programming to automate the design process.
In just 18 hours and 26 minutes, Montague produced the first-ever computer-generated draft of a naval ship—the Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate. It was a feat that stunned her superiors and sent shockwaves through the defense engineering world.
A Historic Legacy
Montague’s revolutionary system not only shortened the ship design timeline from years to hours but became the standard for naval ship design moving forward. She was later promoted to the position of Program Manager of Ships, the Navy’s highest civilian engineering post at the time—a role no Black woman had ever held before.
Throughout her career, Montague was often the only woman—and certainly the only Black woman—in rooms filled with men. Yet she pushed forward, earning awards and respect despite the dual challenges of racism and sexism. She was named the U.S. Navy’s Civilian of the Year in 1972 and received the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Achievement Award in 1978.
Even after retiring from the Navy in 1990, Montague dedicated her life to inspiring the next generation of scientists, particularly young women and Black students. She frequently visited schools and STEM programs, sharing her story of resilience and triumph.
In 2017, she was finally recognized on a national scale when she was inducted into the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame. That same year, she published her memoir, “Overnight Code: The Life of Raye Montague, the Woman Who Revolutionized Naval Engineering,” co-authored with her son, David Montague.
More Than a Hidden Figure
While names like Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan have become more well-known thanks to the book and film Hidden Figures, Montague’s name has only recently gained wider recognition. But her contributions are equally groundbreaking.
In a 2018 interview shortly before her passing, Montague summed up her journey:
“They said I couldn’t do it. I proved them wrong. Every time someone said I didn’t belong, I let my work speak for me.”
Raye Montague died on October 10, 2018, at the age of 83. Her life is a testament to the power of determination, brilliance, and a refusal to be boxed in by others’ expectations.
Why Her Story Still Matters
In today’s conversations about diversity in STEM, equity in education, and the recognition of unsung heroes in American history, Raye Montague’s story is more relevant than ever. Her legacy encourages young people—especially young Black girls—to pursue their passions, learn fearlessly, and understand that their contributions can reshape the world.
As America reckons with its past, the story of Raye Montague should be taught not just in engineering schools or Black History Month programs, but in every classroom and every boardroom that values innovation, equity, and excellence.
