Feminine Feats It was 1952 before Georgia Tech accepted women for admission to its regular academic program. The first two women to enter Tech were Mrs. Elizabeth Herndon, a World War II widow, and Miss Diane Michel, from Houston, Texas. Michel later became one of the first two women to receive a degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology when she graduated in 1956 in industrial engineering, along with Shirley Clements, an electrical engineering transfer student with three years on the Tech campus. After graduation and beginning a career, Shirley Clements married Duke Mewborn, who had also attended Tech. She is continuing to establish "firsts." In June 1984, Shirley Clements Mewborn became the first woman to be elected to the Georgia Tech Alumni Association Board of Trustees. Nearly four decades earlier, however, Mrs. Annie Teitlebaum Wise, a native of Budapest, Hungary, was the first woman to graduate from Tech's Evening School of Commerce. Wise received her Bachelor of Commercial Studies degree in 1919, a full year before the Georgia Legislature actually legalized the enrollment of women in the Evening School of Commerce. Wise also achieved another first for women in 1919; she became Tech's first woman instructor when she was hired as an instructor of commerce by the Evening School.
George C. Griffin
Mrs. Annie Teitlebaum Wise
Amy Wepking, a 1981 mechanical engineering graduate, in 1978 became the first woman to be elected president of Student Government Association. Helen Gould, a 1982 industrial engineering graduate, was the first woman to become president of ANAK, Tech's highest senior honor society. Kelly Braun, a 1984 computer science graduate, was the first woman editor of the Technique during her senior year.
When George Griffin entered Georgia Tech's apprentice class in 1914, he never imagined that over the next 70 years he would directly influence the lives of thousands of Tech students and alumni. Nevertheless, Dean of Students Emeritus Griffin has indeed given tirelessly to Georgia Tech by serving in capacities including math instructor; coach for football, track, cross country, and tennis; editor of alumni publications; and assistant dean and dean of students. Among the organizations established by Dean Griffin are the Georgia Tech Placement Center, numerous state alumni clubs, the Georgia Tech Alumni Association Athletic Hall of Fame, and the Alumni Placement Service. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to Georgia Tech, he received the 1955 Alumni Distinguished Service Award. As expressed by Chancellor Vernon D. Crawford of the University System of Georgia. "No man has carved a niche for himself in the annals of the Institute in any way approaching that which Dean Griffin has fashioned."
Desegregation Arrives Desegregation came to the Georgia Institute of Technology on Sept. 18, 1961, with the enrollment of three black students窶認ord Green, Lawrence Williams and Ralph Long Jr. Nine days later, the three began attending classes, without incident,
largely as a result of President Edwin Harrison's positive leadership, the school administration's careful planning, and the willingness of both faculty and students to accept the change.
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