Can you guess what year the first woman graduated from UTIAS with her PhD?

Before you read any further, write down the year you think the first woman graduated with her PhD from UTIAS, and then promise yourself that you will wait patiently to find out if you’re right.

Let’s face it, for some reason, aerospace was not an area of study that attracted women over the years. It’s not that women weren’t involved at all, they just weren’t involved as students...at the beginning.

As I mentioned in an earlier email, Alberta Patterson, wife of Dr. G.N. Patterson, founder of UTIA, played a critical role in the operation of UTIAS. Not only did she create a critical clippings record of UTIAS in the news, but apparently, she was also responsible for promoting UTIAS to get a lot of that coverage.

Mrs. Patterson even succeeded in getting mentions in the “Social” pages, e.g.:

A brief clipping from The Telegram, March 16, 1956, detailing Dr. and Mrs. Gordon Patterson entertaining Institute of Aerophysics Faculty at their home after a bowling party.

A brief clipping from The Montreal Gazette, February 24, 1959, detailing Dr. Patterson and his wife in Montreal entertaining J.A.D. McCurdy and the Governor-General on the 50th anniversary of powered flight in Canada.

A brief article from Social and Personal Notes in the Globe and Mail, June 13, 1961, detailing the dinner party hosted by Gordon and Alberta Patterson for a large group of visiting international space scientists.

We will have more to say about the contributions of Alberta Patterson on our microsite.

Back in the earlier days of the institute, many students were married and in 1964 the wives of these students formed a Students’ Wives Association - complete with a constitution. They organized social gatherings for the students, and they even created a cookbook complete with a little quiz at the end:

Sample etiquette quiz from the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies Student Wives' Association, 1960s.

You’ll have to wait for the microsite to check your score and some recipes...

Another group of women that were central to the UTIAS infrastructure were the women administrators. They may be the forgotten ones in the historical archives, but we have not forgotten about these women and want to acknowledge their hard work.

As you can see, women were not absent from UTIAS, just women students were absent, but that began to change in the early 60s. Unfortunately, some of the records were lost by U of T in the translation from hard copy to soft copy, but thanks to Alberta Patterson’s binders, we have a photo from 1963-64 that shows the first 2 female MASc students at UTIAS.

A group of MA.Sc. students pose for a photo inside, 1963-64. Two women are present amongst the male students, Jean MacWorth and Donna Carr.

We do not know MacWorth’s first name, but we believe she was the first woman to graduate with her MASc in either 1964 or 1965. Donna Carr, the other woman in the photo, is the first woman on record to graduate from UTIAS with her MASc (6T6). Carr was from Calgary, Alberta and was the very first Canadian to win a Zonta International Amelia Earhart scholarship.

Adele Buckley, Alberta woman who won Zonta scholarship, looks at lab equipment.

Three years later, after obtaining her EngSci degree in 1968, Marion Ferguson (later Gadsby) graduated with her MASc degree in 1969.

A dozen graduate students pose for a photo outside in 1974. Adele Buckley, seated second from the right, is the only woman present.

And now it is time to see if you had the right answer: Adele Buckley, another Zonta International scholarship winner from Alberta, became the first woman to graduate from UTIAS with her PhD in 1974.

Newspaper clipping from Toronto Star, 1973
Headline: Mother of two winds grant to study aerospace sciences
Byline: Lotta Dempsey
Photo: A woman makes adjustments to lab equipment.
Caption: Adele Buckley works in Laboratory: She’s won Zonta grant for study in aerospace sciences.
Now, Adele Buckley, a mother of two, can go to school all day and get her PhD. Mrs. Buckley has just been awarded a $3,000 grant by Zonta International, a service organization of executive women in business and the professions.
The young Willowdale woman, who earned her master’s degree in science at the University of Alberta in 1960, has been a part-time student, research and teaching assistant during the years following the birth of her children.
Hers is the 108th fellowship awarded in thirty-three years to women in fourteen countries for advanced studies in aerospace sciences. The grants were established as a memorial to famed aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart, who was a member of Zonta.
For the past year Mrs. Buckley has been a part-time student and doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, fifteen miles north of the city on Dufferin Street. She has been working with the team of Doctor J. Barry French and Doctor Neil Reid on a project in which atmospheric measurements are applied in other areas. She has been using sophisticated equipment for sniffing out traces of gasses through molecular beam techniques.
Mrs. Buckley moves around a molecular beam apparatus using a quadrupole mass spectrometer with the ease of an average housewife in her kitchen. “Mrs. Buckley is valuable to our group because of her background in physis,” said Doctor French, project director. “We are working with geophysicists on such matters as being able to have an airborne detection system sniff out gasses given off by ore bodies, for instance. But also, with the Medical Research Council, we are investigating analysis of human breath to assess metabolism of new-born infants. When the infant switches from the mother’s life support to its own life system at birth, defects can show up which should be analyzed instantly. Molecular beam techniques should lead to help in this. They can also sniff out undesirable pollution elements in the air.”
An Alberta-born farmer’s daughter, Adele married Peter Buckley, a fellow student at the University of Alberta. He’s a mathematician and is one of the heads of Multiple Access, a computer corporation which he helped found. When they moved east and her children, Erie, now 9, and Lauren, 8, were born, she “retired” to motherhood and home duties. “But things happen quickly in the world of science today, I didn’t want to get behind. My husband encouraged me to keep on with part-time courses, some lecturing and laboratory demonstration work. Coming to the Aerospace Institute meant getting into my doctoral work… and into Doctor French’s project. Now, with the Zonta grant, I can return to the university for fulltime studies.”

Buckley, whose supervisor was Prof. Barry French, began work on her PhD in 1970. She was the mother of 2 children at that time and she told Prof. French that she would need to be off for 2 months every summer when her children were on vacation from school. Prof. French agreed, but still Buckley graduated 4 years and 3 months later, which included the time she took off every year!

Dr. Adele Buckley and her work were critical to one of the most successful spinoffs in UofT history, but you will have to wait for the microsite to read all about that.

Don’t wait to register for the UTIAS 75th Anniversary Event because you will have the opportunity to meet Dr. Adele Buckley and Marion Gadsby (nee Ferguson).