PHILADELPHIA FIRST LADIES

The Philadelphia first ladies, "the initial members of the Drexel group, the nucleus from which grew the National Society of Women Engineers, were enthusiastic and hard working. They were determined to prove themselves in a profession dominated by men." - AW Grosvenor

The Philadelphia first ladies are founding and/or charter members of the Society. Charter members are all women whose applications to SWE were approved in 1950. A founding member is any woman who attended the SWE Founding Meeting at Green Engineering Camp, Cooper Union, New Jersey. Thus a founding member does not have to be a charter member if she did not submit a membership application in 1950.

Alma Kuppinger Forman #26

Alma Kuppinger Forman, a SWE and Philadelphia Section Charter Member, has been a member of the Philadelphia Section since its inception. She is one of the women engineering students at the Drexel Institute of Technology, now Drexel University, who in November 1946 “organized a society to promote friendship and to help each other with problems.” In those early days when she was a senior and chairman of the SWE group, she had to go Dr. James Creese, President of the Institute, to get money to sponsor activities such as the 1949 first SWE conference. She ran against Dr. Beatrice Hicks, who became first President of the Society. During SWE’s formative years, Alma served on the National Board of Directors and the Nominating Committee, as Chair of the first Eastern Seaboard Meeting that was held in Philadelphia in March 1955, several terms as Section Chairman and editor of the section newsletter, “SWE Outlook.” In later years most of her activities centered on working with students. As an engineering professor at Temple University, Alma encouraged the women engineering students to form a SWE Student Section and she served as Faculty Advisor to the section until she retired in 1995. She continued to work with Temple’s outreach programs for another three years. In recent years Alma has provided many archival materials and other background on the genesis of the Society and the Philadelphia Section. She was named to the section’s Hall of Fame in 1990. Read More...

Grace Murray Hopper

Dr. Grace Murray Hopper, SWE Charter Member of the Philadelphia Section, Achievement Award winner, and Life Member, came to the Philadelphia area in 1949 when she joined the Eckert-Mauchley Corporation as a senior mathematician. She remained with the company when it was bought by Remington Rand in 1950 and later merged with the Sperry Corporation. She left the area in 1967 when she was recalled to active duty by the Navy and sent to the Washington, D.C. area. Dr. Hopper was the first Chairman of the SWE-Philadelphia Section. Throughout the years she often served as a speaker at various SWE events. In 1964 Grace Murray Hopper received the SWE Achievement Award, the Society’s highest honor, “In recognition of her significant contributions to the burgeoning computer industry as an engineering manager and originator of automatic programming systems.” She is credited with the conception of a compiling system that allows the computer to write its own program from key instructions and developed the first English language compiler that was later incorporated into the Common Business-Oriented Language (COBOL).
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Doris McNulty #30

Doris M. McNulty, SWE Founding Member and Charter Member of the Philadelphia Section, was very active in the section from its earliest days through 1977 when her work took her out of the United States for about a decade. She is one of the women engineering students at the Drexel Institute of Technology (now Drexel University) who met during 1948 to socialize with other women engineers and students, many of whom were evening school students. She served in most section offices, including several terms as Chairman, Treasurer, Section Representative, and head of various committees during the 1950s until she left the area in the 1970s. She was also active at the national level on the Board of Directors (1952-1954) and as an editor of the national newsletter, Journal of SWE, - the first few issues were published from her home in Philadelphia. Since her retirement in 1992, she rejoined the Philadelphia Section and has served as a valued source of information on the beginnings of SWE and early local customs such as the SWE bracelet and fines for not wearing your SWE pin to meetings. Doris became a registered Professional Engineer in 1961. She was named to the Philadelphia Section Hall of Fame in 2009. Read More...

Phyllis "Sandy" Evans Miller #34

Phyllis “Sandy” Evans Miller, SWE Founding Member and Charter Member of the Philadelphia Section, was active in the section from the time she was a student at the Drexel Institute of Technology, now Drexel University, in 1946 until she moved to Pittsburgh, PA, after receiving her degree and relocating for a new job. She helped to found the Pittsburgh Section in 1952 and became its first Chairman. While at Drexel, she served as Vice President of the section when it hosted the SWE 1949 Convention and in 1949-1950 as President of the regional Society of Women Engineers that consisted of five undergraduate and two graduate sections at the time. From 1950 to 1952 she served as National Corresponding Secretary during her transition from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Read More...

Eleanor Greiner

Described as pint-sized and blonde, Eleanor Greiner Gabriel was a SWE Founding Member of the Philadelphia Section. She was one of the under graduate engineers who joined with the women engineering students to develop the SWE organization begun by students at the Drexel Institute of Technology, now Drexel University, in the mid 1940s. After the Society was charted in 1950, Eleanor remained active with the Drexel section as Vice President and Assistant Corresponding Secretary of the Philadelphia District. Read More...

Ruby Singleton Langford #27

Ruby Singleton Langford, SWE Founding Member, Charter Member of the Philadelphia Section, and a Life Member, moved to Philadelphia in 1948 from Florida and was very active in the section until she moved to New York City in 1952. She attended Drexel Evening College to study electrical engineering while she was working full time as a draftsman. She was Assistant Editor and Art Editor of the early editions of the Section Newsletter. She also served in the office of Corresponding Secretary in 1951. The original SWE logo and the “OUTLOOK” masthead for the Section newsletter were designed by Ruby. Read More...

Ruth Kern #25

Ruth E. Kern, SWE Founding Member and Charter Member of the Philadelphia Section, was one of the “graduate” engineers who joined with the women engineering students to develop the SWE organization begun by students at the Drexel Institute of Technology, now Drexel University, in the mid 1940s. She was an active member and held multiple officer positions throughout the 1950s – two years as Recording Secretary, two years as Treasurer, one term as Corresponding Secretary, and one term as Statistics Chair. Read More...