Maggie Gee, WASP pilot and Lawrence Livermore physicist, died on February 1, 2013, at age 89.
Maggie Gee died on February 1, 2013, at the age of 89. Her passing marked the end of a remarkable life that spanned pioneering service as a World War II military pilot and a distinguished career as a nuclear physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
In her later years, Gee became an advocate for preserving and sharing the history of the WASP program and Asian American contributions to science and the military. She participated in numerous oral history projects, documentaries, and public speaking engagements, ensuring that the stories of women pilots and scientists of her generation were not forgotten. She was honored by numerous institutions, including the California Museum, which inducted her into the California Hall of Fame.
Her death was widely noted in aviation history circles and among Asian American historical societies as the loss of one of the last living links to the WASP program's original members. Gee's dual legacy—as an aviation trailblazer and a scientist who contributed to Cold War-era nuclear research—cemented her status as an important figure in both women's history and Asian American history. Memorial tributes highlighted her courage in pursuing two male-dominated fields during an era of significant racial and gender discrimination, inspiring later generations of women in STEM and aviation.