Mary Sears graduated in 1923 from Winsor School in Boston and attended Radcliffe College where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree (1927), a Master’s Degree (1929) and a Ph.D. in zoology (1933). Mary worked as a research assistant at Harvard (1933-1949), as a Radcliff tutor (1934-1940) and as an instructor at Wellesley College (1938-1943).  She served at Pisco Bay in Peru as Grant and Faculty Fellow for Wellesley College’s Committee on Inter-American Cultural and Artistic Relations (1941). She edited the 1961 book, Oceanography, considered to be the groundbreaking text in the field of marine research.

As a child Mary collected plants and animals on the bogs near her home on Pelham Island Road. At age 40, with arthritis and her gender against her, Mary wanted to join the Navy which led to her induction into the WAVES, the women’s division of the Naval Reserve. In April 1943, she became head of the new Oceanographic Unit which was understaffed, poorly supplied and assigned menial projects. Navy brass resisted putting women in uniform but after Admiral Chester Nimitz’s loss of 3,500 men to a Japanese  fusillade on Tarawa Island when the tides were at the lowest and shallow waters left Naval men stranded, the reconnaissance was kept top secret and women were needed in uniform. She saved thousands of Armed Service men’s lives

Lt. Mary Sears’ unit was expanded to 400 personnel (a Naval destroyer had a complement of 300). Mary explained, “Given good weather data, one could forecast wave conditions, surf height … for obvious advantage for amphibious landing operations.”  She collected raw data, from Allied vessels and shore stations, processed and returned to the field to help strategize attacks. When Nimitz targeted Iwo Jima, the errors of Tarawa were not repeated. The Oceanographic Unit data supported the underwater offensive that crippled Japanese warships and its merchant fleet. Mary’s Unit was the silent component to the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the seizure of Saipan’s airfields. After V-J Day, Mary was promoted and cited for “accomplishments of great value to the Armed Forces of the United States.”

During the war, she had often stayed up all night doing tidal calculations while devoting energy to elective offices. As a principled politician, she served on the Falmouth School Board (1952-1973 and chair 1960-1969); on the School Committee for the Upper Cape Cod Regional Vocational Technical School District 9 (1963- 1965); and as Area 3 Chairman, Third Vice President and a member of the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees during the 1960s. Mary was also a selectman for 35 years, and chair of the Republican Party of Cape Cod. She worked at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHUI) and became the founding editor of Deep-Sea Research, a distinguished journal. Roger Revelle (one of the early scientists to study anthropogenic global warming) called her “the conscience of oceanography” reflecting her ideals and her actions.

While a graduate student, Mary worked with Henry Bigelow, founder of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, (1932-1943). Mary was deeply involved in the development of WHOI as she participated in the early discussions of the organization, acquiring its first ships, and its first laboratory. Mary remained active at the Institution until late in life. She chaired and helped to establish the First International Congress on Oceanography, held at the United Nations in New York (1959). She was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was a member of numerous other professional societies and organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, Society of Women Geographers, Sigma Xi, and the American Association of Limnology and Oceanography. She served as a Trustee of the Marine Biological Laboratory (1956–1962) and was a Trustee Emeritus from 1976 until her death in 1997. She also was a Life Member of the Corporation of the Bermuda Biological Station.

Mary was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1964). She received honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Mount Holyoke College (1962) and from Southeastern Massachusetts University (now UMass Dartmouth) (1974). Radcliffe College honored Sears with its Alumnae Recognition Award (1992), given to “women whose lives and spirits exemplify the value of a liberal arts education.” WHOI’s Women’s Committee honored Sears at its first “Woman Pioneers in Oceanography” seminar (1994). Falmouth Business and Professional Women’s Organization presented its “Woman of the Year” award to Mary for her many professional and community contributions (1996).

– 300-foot research vessel named in her honor became the first research vessel in the Navy named for a woman and the first ship named for a Wayland resident. It was launched in 2000. The Oceanographic Survey Ship USNS Mary Sears is one of seven research vessels in operation today. The ship has sonar, underwater metal detection and satellite imagery capabilities. The U.S. Navy says they still use the knowledge that Mary’s intelligence reports gave. “She made us understand how the ocean environment affects sonar.”

Mary was small, quiet and determined. She lived simply. rising at 5 a. m. to answer letters and study languages and from May to November swimming for half an hour after sunrise at Nobska Beach. She counseled young women scientists whom she would advise: to do a job, stand firm and simply refuse to be pushed aside.

Contributed by Kay Westcott-Gardner