Occupation Electrical engineer Died 16 August 1993 | Years active 1939-1971 | |
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Born July 11, 1916 ( 1916-07-11 ) | ||
Kitty O'Brien Joyner (July 11, 1916 – August 16, 1993) was an American electrical engineer with National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and then with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) upon its replacement of NACA in 1958. She was hired in 1939 as the organization's first woman engineer, shortly after she had completed her degree as the first woman to graduate from the University of Virginia's engineering program.
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Early life and education
Joyner was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, graduated from Sweet Briar College in 1937. Two years later, in 1939, she was the first woman to graduate from the University of Virginia’s engineering program. While at UVA, she received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award for excellence of character and service to humanity.
Career
The NACA Memorial Langley Aeronautical Laboratory (LMAL, later the Langley Research Center) hired Joyner as an electrical engineer in September 1939, making her their first woman engineer. Joyner worked for NACA/NASA for several decades, achieving the title Branch Head of the Facilities Cost Estimating Branch, Office of Engineering and Technical Services, and managing several wind tunnels, including supersonic wind tunnels..
Joyner left NASA in May 1971.
Joyner was active in engineering organizations and societies. She was a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and an Honorary Life Member of the Engineers Club of the Virginia Peninsula.
Personal life
Kitty's husband, Upshur T. Joyner, also worked at NACA/NASA Langley for 40 years as a physicist, retiring in 1971, the same year as Kitty.
Kitty and Upshur lived in Poquoson, Virginia, and had two children, a son named Upshur, who died of leukemia at the age of 47 in 1990, and a daughter, Kate.
Kitty died on August 16, 1993, at the age of 77. Her husband died a few months later, in November 1993, at the age of 85.
In addition to her professional and personal engineering activities, she was also the first regent and organizer for the Charles Parish Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which named an annual scholarship after her, and a recipient of the United Daughters of the Confederacy Winnie Davis Award.