Yvonne was the first woman to receive a mechanical engineering degree from Howard University and the first woman to receive a Master's in engineering from Vanderbilt.
Yvonne Young Clark was born in Houston, Texas and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. As a child she had a knack for fixing things but in high school she was not allowed to take certain engineering classes because she was a woman. Undiscouraged, Yvonne decided that she wanted to study mechanical engineering at University of Kentucky, Louisville. She received a full scholarship to the school but they rescinded their offer when they learned she was Black. Her family threatened litigation and the State of Kentucky settled the law suit by agreeing to pay for her to attend Howard University.
Howard University is a historically Black college in Washington D.C. and she graduated in 1951. Yvonne was a star student but wasn’t allowed to walk with her fellow graduates to receive her engineering degree. She was instead issued her degree in the president’s office. After college she held a position at Frankfort Arsenal Gauge Labs in Philadelphia and for Radio Corporation of America in New Jersey. In addition to working, Yvonne was involved with the Society of Women Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the American Society of Engineering Education.
In 1955, Yvonne and her family moved to Nashville, Tennessee and she was hired as a professor at Tennessee State University. Yvonne would spend 55 years teaching during the school year and working at engineering companies during the summers. Her many projects included working on recoilless weapons at Frankfort Arsenal, identifying rocket engine weak points for NASA, and building containers to retrieve moon specimen for NASA.
Yvonne retired in 1988. In 2007, she was interviewed by her daughter, Carol Lawson, for the Society of Women Engineers and StoryCorps. When asked what advice she would give to female engineers today, Yvonne said,
"Don't take no for an answer if you feel you're qualified." Yvonne Young Clark, 2007
Visit this website for the full interview.
Photo credits:
Photo courtesy of
Black Past
.
Born: April 13, 1929
Died: January 27, 2019
Education: B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Howard University, 1951
M.S. Engineering, Vanderbilt University, 1972
Known for: Being the first woman to achieve an engineering degree from both her alma maters.
