UB School Of Engineering And Applied Sciences To Honor First Woman Graduate

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences is honoring its first woman graduate, Dorothy Price ('49), with its first-ever Vital Partners award for individual achievement.

The award, commemorating the 50th anniversary of her graduation, will be given to Dorothy (Gracz) Price Oct. 28 at the engineering school's annual Industry University Day/Vital Partners conference and luncheon.

"We are very pleased to recognize and honor Dorothy Price," said Mark Karwan, Ph.D., dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, "not only as a trailblazer in Western New York as the first woman who graduated from UB with an engineering degree, but for her exemplary contributions to engineering and education as well."

Karwan noted that while the number of young women engineers rose throughout the 1970s and 1980s, it has not increased in the 1990s.

"We hope that by giving her this award, we are recognizing her as a role model for today's young woman engineers and to inspire future generations to choose engineering as a profession," he said.

Price attributes her pioneering foray into engineering to several factors, perhaps the most influential of which was World War II.

Upon graduation from South Park High School in 1944, she was hired by Curtiss-Wright as an engineer's aide.

"The corporation at that time was going around to the local high schools, soliciting young women to work in the engineering department," Price recalls. "So because of my grades, especially in math, and the fact that I had taken a drafting course, I went to work for them in the drafting department, helping engineers make corrections on the blueprints for cargo and fighter planes."

It was a job Price loved and that she excelled at, a fact that did not escape notice by her boss, who strongly encouraged her to enroll in engineering school once the war was over.

But Price was hoping to explore a different aspect of aviation -- by becoming an airline stewardess.

"I really wanted to be a stewardess," she recalls, laughing, "but I was disqualified because I wore glasses."

So she took her boss's advice and became the first woman to enroll in UB's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Price's academic career at UB nearly paralleled the development of the engineering curriculum: she started in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, which was the sole department when she enrolled, then she switched briefly to electrical engineering and finally to industrial engineering, a department that began during her sophomore year.

"I had no idea what I was going to do with this degree, but I never once felt like, 'what am I doing here?'" she said.

Price's job at Curtiss-Wright had prepared her well for her experience at UB, where her insistence on self-reliance came in handy.

"She was a very thoughtful, energetic young lady," recalls Charles Fogel, UB professor emeritus of engineering instruction, who was assistant dean at the time. "Her work was very good and she was very popular with the other students."

Price's first job out of college was at H.W. Clement Printing Co. -- which later became Arcata Graphics -- doing time studies and making things run more efficiently in the company's book bindery, which employed many women.

After working there for several years, she decided to get out of industry and try something new. A newspaper ad for a physics teacher in the Niagara Wheatfield School District caught her eye and she decided to apply.

"I had no credentials for teaching at all, but they told me with my background in engineering, I could certainly do it," she said.

Price completed the required education courses at Buffalo State College. She returned to the college during summers and evenings to finish her degree in secondary science education and, eventually, a master's degree in education.

In 1964, she accepted a position teaching physics at Maryvale High School in Cheektowaga, from which she retired in 1981.

Price's advice to young girls who have an aptitude for math and the sciences is that they should strongly consider engineering, regardless of the career path they have in mind.

"It can be preparation for unlimited opportunities in any field," she said.

Price lives in East Aurora.