Life After Davis: Naval Ships and NASA Launches

After earning her B.S. in Mathematics in 1966,  Joan Marie Peters Ogden was a GS-7 mathematician in the Ships' Engineering section in the U.S. Navy in 1966 and 1967. While there, she helped NASA with mathematic modeling for naval ships, modeling ships motions to drive the hydraulics necesary for keeping the communication dish steady, to keep the dishes trained correctly during the Apollo Program. Keeping the dishes steady and pointed precisely was instrumental in keeping communications and tracking with the space craft and helped ensure ships could be in the right spot at the right time.

After, she continued her education with a masters in Mathematics at Michigan State in 1968. She taught at Albion College, University of Missouri, St. Louis, and did an NSF in Combinatorial Theory at Bowdin College. Later, she taught at Bloomsburg State University. 

She left academia and embarked on a career as an actuary, first at Blue Cross of Northeastern PA, then at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Utah.

Joan is continuing her career as a Consulting Actuary specializing in health, with clients including insurers, providers of care, employers, and regulators and legislators at her business, Joan Ogden Actuaries in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Outside of work, she’s married to Stewart Ogden with one daughter, Heather VanDeventer – Dean of the Episcopal Cathedral in Spokane – and two grandkids. She and her husband love tent camping in Utah's red rock country, small boat travel in Europe, wine tasting, and gourmet food.

Watch a short interview by PBS on Joan’s time collaborating with NASA as part of their series, Moon Memories.