"Raye-Jean-Jordan-Montague" (January 21,1935-October 9,2018)

Was an internationally registered professional engineer (RPE)with the U.S. Navy who is credited with the first computer-generated rough draft of a U.S. naval's first female program manager of ships (PMS-309),Information Systems Improvement Program,she held a civilian equivalent rank of captain.She was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame in 2018.

Raye was born in Little Rock (Pulaski County) to Rayford Jordan & Flossie Graves Jordan.She attended St. Bartholomew School before moving to Merrill High School in Pine Bluff ( Jefferson County), graduating in 1952. She attended Arkansas AM&N (Now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff),wanting to study engineering,because no college in Arkansas were awarding such degrees to African American women in the 1950s, she took a degree in business,graduating in 1956.She was married three times: Weldon A.Means in 1955,to David H. Montague in 1965,and to James Parrott in 1973.After her marriage to James ended,she returned to the Montague, the same last name as her only child,David R. Montague.

In 1956, Raye began her career with the navy at the old David Taylor Model Basin (now the Naval Surface Warfare Center) in Carderock,Maryland as a digital computer systems operator.She later advanced to the position of computer systems analysts at the Naval Ship Engineering Center and served as the program director for the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Integrated Designs Manufacturing, and Maintenance Program as well as the division head for the Computer-Aided Design and Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) program. On January 22,1984 she accepted the newly created position of deputy program manager of the navy's Information Improvement Program.

Raye's career spanned the development of computer technologies, from the UNIVAC I, the world's first commercially available computer,down to modern computers.She successfully revised the first automated system for selecting and printing ship specifications and produced the first draft for the FFG-7 frigate ( the oliver Hazard Perry-class,or Perry-Class,ship) I'm eighteen hours.This was the first designed by computer.

In 1972,she was awarded the U.S. Navy's Meriitorious Civilian Service Award,the navy's third-highest honorary award.Raye was the first woman professional engineer to receive the society of Manufacturing Engineers Achievement Award (1978) and the National Computer Graphics Association Award for the Advancement of Computer Graphics (1988). She was also received a host of other honors from military branches, industry, and academia.Raye worked on the USS Dwight D.Eisenhower (CVN-69) and the navy's first landing craft helicopter-assault ship (LHA).The last project with which she was affiliated was the Seawolf-class submarine (SSN-21).
Raye retired in 1990.In 2006,after fifty years spent in the metropolitan Washington DC area,she returned to Arkansas,living in west little rock,where she remained active with lifequest,The Links inc., the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority,and the American Contract Bridge League.She also mentored inmates through a community re-entry program through the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) as well as students at the Estem Elementary Public Charter School in Little Rock.In 2017,with the movie Hidden Figures having awakened an awareness of the previously unacknowledged contributions of African American engineers and mathematicians in the American defense and space industries,Raye was featured on the T.V. show Good Morning America and dubbed a "real life hidden figure." Rayed died of congestive heart failure.