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About Mary
Mary Blade, born Mary Frances Plumb in Salt Lake City in 1913, earned her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Utah in 1934, becoming the first woman to graduate with a degree in engineering from the institution. She later obtained an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Columbia University. Blade's distinguished career in engineering education centered at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, where she was appointed Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering in 1949 and served as a full-time professor until 1978, teaching for a total of 37 years. As the first woman to teach engineering at Cooper Union in its 90-year history, she was also one of the few women on any engineering faculty in the United States and the first woman professor of mechanical or electrical engineering in New York City. Additionally, she directed Cooper Union's Green Camp from 1955 to 1972.
Blade specialized in industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, and engineering design graphics, with contributions to ergonomics including writings on the mechanics of chairs and the design of therapeutic devices for palsy patients at the Color Hospital for Orthopedic Disabilities. Key publications include her chapter 'Physical Forces and Damages, Your Sitting Behavior, Move' in the 1978 edited volume Chair: The current state of the art, with the who, the why, and the what of it, as well as editing the ASEE Journal of Engineering Graphics. She advanced women in engineering by hosting the inaugural conference of the Society of Women Engineers on May 27–28, 1950, at Green Camp. Blade delivered public lectures in a 1956 Great Hall series titled 'The Shape of Things and How They Affect Our Behavior.' Her honors include the Cooper Award for outstanding teaching based on student votes, the Edwin Sharp Burdell Award for creative syntheses of science and art, and the 1980 Distinguished Service Award from the Engineering Design Graphics Division of the American Society for Engineering Education. She held lifetime membership in the Alpine Club of Canada and passed away in 1994.
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