1. Hilda Counts was an American electrical engineer and co-founder of the American Society of Women Engineers and Architects.
12 Facts About Hilda Counts
1. 2.
Hilda Counts was the first woman to earn a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Colorado.
3.
Hilda Counts was born in 1893 in Runnels County, Texas, to Sylvania Whisnant and Thomas Peter Counts.
4.
Hilda Counts got an associate degree from the University of Colorado before working as a high school mathematics and physics teacher for two years.
5.
Hilda Counts then returned to the University where she studied electrical engineering.
6.
Hilda Counts graduated in 1919 as the first woman to do so with that degree.
7.
Hilda Counts returned to work after a fourteen-year gap and worked in the Rural Electrification Administration in Washington DC.
8.
Hilda Counts officially retired in 1963 but remained involved in the work until her 80s.
9.
In 1919 when Hilda Counts worked with Lou Alta Melton, to create an American Society of Women Engineers and Architects they wrote to all US universities with Engineering departments to find how many women were students.
10.
Hilda Counts remained focused on the creation and maintenance of such an organization and in women's education in engineering.
11.
Hilda Counts was involved in the founding of the SWE.
12.
Hilda Counts was on the board of the District of Columbia Society of Professional Engineers.