Mary Blade

Mary Plumb Blade (20 January 1913 – 4 December 1994) was an American engineer, director of the Green Camp from 1955 to 1972, and full-time professor of mechanical engineering in the engineering school of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art from 1946 to 1978.[2]

Mary Blade
Mary Blade, standing at blackboard showing a graph
Blade in 1946
Born1913
Salt Lake City, Utah
Died1994
Other namesMary Frances Plumb, Mary Francis Blade
CitizenshipAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Utah (B.S. 1934)
Columbia University (M.S.)[1]
Scientific career
Fieldsindustrial engineering, mechanical engineering
InstitutionsThe Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art

Early life and education

Mary Frances Plumb was born on 20 January 1913 in Salt Lake City to Maude Irene (nee Augustine) and Hylon Theron Plumb, an electrical engineer.[3]

She graduated with a B.S. in engineering from the University of Utah, the first woman to do so, and an M.S. in industrial engineering from Columbia University.[4] She was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority.[5]

Career

At the time of her appointment as a professor, Blade was "the only woman on the Cooper Union engineering faculty (where she initially taught drawing, mathematics and design) and one of few women on any engineering faculty in the United States".[6] Her obituary stated that she was the first woman professor of mechanical/electrical engineering in New York City.[7]

Mary Blade helped organize the May 27–28, 1950 inaugural weekend of the Society of Women Engineers at Cooper Union's Green Engineering Camp.[8]

In 1978, Blade was featured in Chair: The current state of the art, with the who, the why, and the what of it by Peter Bradford and Barbara Prete with a chapter titled "Physical Forces and Damages, Your Sitting Behavior, Move."[9][10]

In 1980, the Engineering Design Graphics Division of the American Society for Engineering Education awarded Blade its Distinguished Service Award.[11]

Personal life

Mary Plumb married engineer Ellis Hardin Blade (1908–1986) on 31 December 1934 in Manhattan, New York and was known as Mary Blade or Mary Plumb Blade after this time. They were married for 62 years.[5] Blade was also an avid and accomplished mountain climber.[6]

Professor Mary Plumb Blade died in Vancouver General Hospital on 4 December 1994, having suffered from Alzheimer's disease in her final years. She was survived by three siblings and "22 grand and great-grand nieces and nephews and her feline companion, Miss America of Vancouver"[7]

References
  1. Craighead, Madeleine (10 July 1949). "Mistress of the Slide Rule and T-Square". The Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City, Utah. Expecting her to specialize in home economics at the University of Utah, her parents were stunned when she announced her major was electrical engineering. A Tri-Delt, she was no ordinary graduate in 1934. Mary Frances Plumb was the first woman student to receive a diploma in electrical engineering at the University of Utah.
  2. Brooks, Mitsuko. "Records of Cooper Union commencements, 1975–1988". The Cooper Union Library. The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  3. "1930 United States Federal Census". www.ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-01-25.
  4. Bradford, Peter (1978). Prete, Barbara (ed.). Chair: The current state of the art, with the who, the why, and the what of it. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Publishers. pp. 56–65.
  5. "Salt Lake Telegram 22 Dec 1934, page 6". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-01-25.
  6. "Mary Blade, standing at blackboard". Smithsonian Institution Archives. Smithsonian Institution.
  7. "The Vancouver Sun 07 Dec 1994, page 25". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-01-25.
  8. "The Founders" (PDF). SWE Magazine of the Society of Women Engineers: 34. Spring 2015. ISSN 1070-6232. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 March 2020. Gathering at the Cooper Union's Green Engineering Camp on a spring weekend, the following women founded the Society of Women Engineers on May 27, 1950, known as Founders' Day: [...] Mary Blade [...]Beatrice Alice Hicks [...] Grace M. Hopper
  9. Soulellis, Paul. "Chair". Soulellis.com. Soulellis Studio, Inc. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  10. "This is my great aunt Mary Plumb Blade". So Nails. Tumblr.com. Archived from the original on 7 May 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  11. "The distinguished service award". Engineering Design Graphics Division. The American Society for Engineering Education. Retrieved 9 July 2013.


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