Yvonne Clark facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Yvonne Young Clark
|
|
|---|---|
Yvonne Young Clark, ca 1961
|
|
| Born | April 13, 1929 Houston, Texas, U.S.
|
| Died | January 27, 2019 (aged 89) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
|
| Resting place | Cave Hill Cemetery Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mechanical Engineering |
| Institutions |
|
Yvonne Y. Clark (born Georgianna Yvonne Young) was an amazing African-American engineer. She was born on April 13, 1929, and passed away on January 27, 2019. Yvonne Clark was a true pioneer for women and African Americans in the field of mechanical engineering.
She achieved many "firsts" in her career. Yvonne was the first woman to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Howard University. She was also the first woman to get a master's degree in Engineering Management from Vanderbilt University. Later, she became the first woman to teach engineering at Tennessee State University, where she eventually became a respected professor.
Contents
Becoming an Engineer: Early Life and Education
Yvonne Clark was born in Houston, Texas in 1929. She grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. Her father was a doctor, and her mother was a librarian and journalist. Yvonne loved to build and fix things when she was a kid.
Even though she loved mechanics, she wasn't allowed to take mechanical drawing classes at school because she was a girl. However, she took an aeronautics class in high school. She even joined the school's Civil Air Patrol, where she learned to shoot and had flying lessons in a simulator!
In 1945, Yvonne finished high school at age 16. She then studied at Girls Latin School in Boston for two years.
Breaking Barriers at University
Yvonne Clark made history at Howard University. She was the first woman to earn a degree in mechanical engineering there in 1951. She was the only girl in her class, which was mostly made up of men who had returned from World War II.
After graduating, she found it hard to get an engineering job. She said that "the engineering job market wasn't very receptive to women, particularly women of color."
Later, in 1972, Yvonne became the first African-American woman to earn a master's degree in Engineering Management from Vanderbilt University. Her master's project was about how to manage materials in big repair projects in the glass industry.
Yvonne's Engineering Career
Yvonne's first job after college was at the Frankford Arsenal Gauge Lab in Philadelphia. This was a U.S. Army ammunition plant. After that, she worked at a small record company called RCA Camden in New Jersey. There, she designed equipment for the factory.
Teaching and Leading at Tennessee State
In 1956, Yvonne moved back to the South and started teaching at Tennessee State University. She was the first female member of their mechanical engineering department. She even led the department twice! First from 1965 to 1970, and then again for 11 years starting in 1977. She eventually retired as a professor.
Yvonne worked hard to encourage more women to become engineers. In 1997, she proudly shared that 25% of the students in her department were female! She also helped start Tennessee State's chapter of Pi Tau Sigma, which is a mechanical engineering society.
Working with Big Companies
Throughout her career, Yvonne Clark also worked for some very well-known organizations. These included NASA, Westinghouse, and Ford.
Amazing Research Projects
Yvonne Clark spent many summers doing important research.
Space and Defense Research
She worked at Frankford Arsenal researching special weapons. She also spent a summer with NASA in Huntsville, Alabama, where she studied Saturn V rocket engines to find hot spots. Later, at the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, she helped design the containers that Neil Armstrong used to bring Moon samples back to Earth!
City Improvement and Refrigerants
Yvonne also did research at Westinghouse's Defense and Space Center in Baltimore, Maryland. This research looked for ways to make parts of the inner city better and more modern.
In the 1990s, her research focused on refrigerants, which are chemicals used in refrigerators and air conditioners. She led a project funded by the Department of Energy to test how well different refrigerants worked in heat pump systems. She also led a student team for a NASA-funded project at TSU called the Center for Automated Space Science.
Yvonne's Family Life
Yvonne married William F. Clark Jr. in 1955. He was a biochemistry teacher. They had a son in 1956 and a daughter in 1968. Her daughter, Carol Lawson, even interviewed Yvonne for the Society of Women Engineers in 2007. Yvonne passed away at her home in Nashville, Tennessee on January 27, 2019.
Awards and Recognition
Yvonne Clark received many awards and honors for her important work and dedication:
- Member and Executive Committee, Society of Women Engineers (starting 1952)
- Fellow of the Society of Women Engineers (starting 1984)
- Mechanism of the Year Award from the TSU student Chapter of ASME (1990)
- Women of Color Technology Award for Educational Leadership (1977)
- Adult Black Achievers Award from the Northwest Family YMCA (1977)
- Distinguished Engineering Educator Award (1998)
- Distinguished Service Award from the Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers (2001)
- President's Distinguished University Award from TSU for 50 years of loyalty (2006)
- Educator of the Year Award by Delta Sigma Theta sorority (2008)
- Member, American Society of Engineering Education
- Member, American Society of Mechanical Engineers
