Sato was the daughter of Japanese parents Bunsaku and Sawa Maeda Noda. She attended
Modesto Junior College, the
University of Northern Colorado, and
Columbia University, and became a teacher. She taught in
Michigan and overseas in
Yokohama, Japan. In 1950, she married Thomas Takahashi Sato. She moved to Long Beach in 1956. She was elected to the Long Beach City Council in 1975 and served until 1986. In 1991 she was appointed to the U.S. National Advisory Council on Educational Research by
George H. W. Bush. In September 2014, the former Hill Middle School, near the campus of
California State University, Long Beach was named in her honor, as Sato Academy of Mathematics and Science. Sato died at her home in Long Beach on February 12, 2021, aged 99. == See also ==