Wilma Z. Davis

Wilma Zimmerman Davis (31 March 1912 – 10 December 2001) was an early American codebreaker during World War II. She was a leading national cryptanalyst before and during World War II and the Vietnam War. She graduated with a degree in Mathematics from Bethany College and successfully completed navy correspondence course in cryptology. She began her career as a leading cryptanalyst which spanned over 30 years in the United States Army Signal Intelligence Service (SIS), a predecessor of the National Security Agency (NSA) in the 1930s. She was hired by William Friedman, who was a US cryptographer in the Army and led the research division of the Army’s Signal Intelligence in the 1930s. Wilma Davis worked as a cryptanalyst on the Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Russian problems. She also worked on the Venona project.

Early life and education

She grew up in a steel town called Beech Bottom, West Virginia which had about 400 people, a church, a pool room, a drug store, and a company store. She had three siblings and her father worked for a steel company. She went to high school in Wellsburg, West Virginia and graduated in 1928. Wilma attended a small college - Bethany College which had about three hundred and fifty students at the time. She graduated with a degree in Mathematics in 1932. She was enrolled in some Navy correspondence courses in cryptology by her brother-in-law who was a civil servant. Davis relished the courses in cryptology and excelled in them. She decided to sit for the Civil Service exam and got on the civil service register. She worked at the National Bureau of Aeronautics (NBS) for about nine months before she received her civil service status. She worked at the Civil Service Commission as a junior Civil Service Examiner, The Italians used their machines to transmit high-level military secrets mainly to diplomats and military officials in Berlin, Washington, and London to avoid intrusions or interceptions from other nations. Wilma was revered for her deep knowledge, prioritize assignments, successfully onboard new team members, and unwavering dedication to her work. The successful work of her team on the Japanese problem allowed the US to gain an upper hand on the Japanese. The Japanese machine was one of the most sophisticated cipher machines in that era and breaking it gave the US access to top-level Japanese messages during World War II. Frank Rowlett had put Wilma in a difficult situation by asking her to take charge of the Chinese project and report back to him. Essentially asking her to run the project without any regard for Leslie Rutledge who was the head. This made Wilma become conflicted as it went against her convictions. It bothered Wilma so much that she became physically sick and went to see her doctor. According to her doctor, she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The information obtained from working on the Venona project was instrumental in the Soviet’s activities during the Cold War. Wilma Davis worked on the Venona project until 1949, then got married and moved to Canada with her second husband, John Mason. After the demise of her second husband, John Mason, Wilma received a telegram from William Friedman to return to work in Washington D.C. Wilma was put in charge of the Russian Diplomatic problem.