GPS inventor advises students to 'think outside the box'

On Sept. 12, Gaylord Green presented Mineral County with a scholarship check for $5,000 at a high school assembly in St. Regis. The check will be added to a nearly $14,000 account Green has set up in the county for qualifying graduates. The winner of the scholarship has the opportunity to receive $8,000 over their four-year college career, or $1,000 each semester.

Green is a 1958 graduate from Superior High School and was one of the inventors of the Global Positioning System (GPS). He attended the U.S. Air Force and received his master’s at Stanford University in aeronautics/astronautics.

The scholarship is available to Superior and St. Regis students, and those in grades 10, 11, and 12 can apply. Green said almost every year the scholarship goes to a Superior student because there has never been an application from St. Regis. He would like to see more students apply and said that there has even been some years where no students applied over the past 10 years — since it has been available.

In order to qualify, students are required to look at 10 technical websites. They then need to pick their favorite and come up with a business plan that would work for Mineral County. However, they do not need to major in science, their major can be in any field. Green simply wants to expose students to the area of science.

“There’s a lot of growth in technology and biomass. Those are things that will grow in your lifetime,” he told the crowd. “No matter what choose a career that you enjoy. If you have fun and don’t make money, that’s called a hobby. But if you have fun and make money, you will be successful.”

He went on to explain what a mid-life crisis is.

“This is when the reality of where you are going meets the division of what you were told you could be. You will be disappointed if you are not doing what you love doing. I’ve watched a lot of people take jobs where they make money but they didn’t have fun doing it and they inevitably reached the mid-age crisis. So have fun, make money and plan ahead,” he advised.

Green also offered the student another incentive, to invest. He recommended they buy just one stock through a company like Les Schwab for around $70 and to start a Roth IRA and start putting money into it. He also said he would match that initial investment.

“By the time you are 50 or 60 it will be worth a lot of money,” he said. “Start early and allow the interest to accumulate.”

GREEN SAID the scholarship is his way of giving back to the community where he grew up. He went to grade school in Haugen. It was a time when there were schools in Haugen, Saltese, DeBorgia, Quartz, Rivulet and Tarkio. From there his family moved to Superior where his father, Ralph Green, bought a ranch located two miles west of town. He was the oldest of a sister, two half-brothers, a half-sister and two step-brothers.

“Dad worked us hard and that’s why we all left,” he said with a chuckle. “But, he was a lot of fun, and a great man.”

He applied to the Air Force Academy and from there went to Stanford. In addition to GPS, he was instrumental in the development of the ICBM inertial guidance system. After retiring from the Air Force, he worked with the NavAstro Company to support GPS developments, the Relativity Gyroscope project and the Equivalence Principle Differential Accelerometer project.

ACCORDING TO Green, he had always scored high in math and science, even in grade school, and had a knack for “thinking outside-the-box.” He tells a story about the early stages when developing the GPS when he was a captain and worked for a major along with Brad Parkinson, who headed the GPS team and had hired Green. At a meeting, they knew they needed to hire someone to study certain aspects of the system. However, there was a problem due to the lack of funds, and Green knew the major would not approve of hiring someone.

This prompted Green to go back to his old organization because he knew they had a lot of flexibility as well as funding,

“So I went to one of the guys and said I wanted $5,000 and to put it on a contract,” in order to do this study, he said. “I also told them that I didn’t know if I could pay them back.” They gave Green the money.

ON HIS way to a staff meeting, the major poked his head into Green’s office and asked if there was anything for him to report.

“I said, ‘yes,’ report that the study is on contract”. The major paused and replied, ‘I thought we didn’t have money.’ I said I know, and that I had borrowed it. The major said that we won’t be able to pay them back and I replied that I know, and I had told them that. The major said we don’t have the authority to do that, and I said, ‘I know, I borrowed that to.’”

That contract bought with borrowed funds and a “borrowed” authority saved the project — because of concerns regarding world-wide accuracy. This process of “thinking outside the box” has proven to be an important part of Green’s make-up.

GREEN, ALONG with his wife Marcia — who has a Master’s degree in Public Health and was also at the presentation — always told their children to, “sleep well, study well, eat well, have friends, make a difference, give back, and always remember where you came from.”