Episode 59: Kate Gleason
Catherine Anselm Gleason, ‘Kate’, was born on November 24, 1865 in Rochester, New York. Her father was part owner of a machine shop and eventually bought out his own machine shop and named it Gleason Works. Kate’s older brother Tom was her father’s right hand. Kate always had an interest in engineering and read books on it as a young child. When she was 11 her older brother Tom died which put a big strain on the family business. Kate went to the office and offered to work. She started off by taking care of billing and eventually all the bookkeeping of the company by the time she was 14. Soon the company was back on its feet with Kate in charge of all the finances and helping with some of the engineering of new machinery. She got into Cornell University’s Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanic Arts, the first woman to get into the 4-year program. Unfortunately, the family business didn’t do well in her absence and her father asked her to come back home for a year or so. She said that leaving school was her ‘first big sorrow’. She returned to Gleason Works and was Secretary-Treasurer by age 25. Kate would travel all over the Midwest herself to sell their machinery. She told her dad to focus on the bevel-gear planer he invented because she believed it would be the future. While she didn’t return to Cornell, she took night classes in mechanical engineering, and had a great depth of knowledge on the subject in order to better answer any questions coming up as she traveled to sell the company’s products. When she was 29, she went to Europe to see if there were business opportunities there and became one of the first examples of American manufacturing expanding globally. In 1914, Kate left Gleason Tool Works. She was very well known and went on to revive several dying companies over the years. Kate died of pneumonia on January 9, 1933 at the age of 68. She left her vast estate to various people and organizations.
Caryatid: Aíne O’Dwyer
Aíne O’Dwyer is a civil engineer from County Tipperary, Ireland. She attended NJIT to study civil engineering. While in school she had an internship at a large construction company that turned into a full time job. In 2017, she opened her own engineering and construction management firm Enovate Engineering. As CEO she is one of the youngest CEOs in the industry, starting her company at 32 years old.
References
Enovate Engineering. “About Enovate Engineering.” Enovate Engineering, www.enovateengineering.com/about. Accessed 16 July 2022.
Fry, Meg. “O’ Dwyer of Enovate Engineering Aims to Differentiate Her Firm in Staid Construction World.” ROI-NJ, 24 May 2019, www.roi-nj.com/2019/05/24/real_estate/o-dwyer-ceo-of-enovate-engineering-aims-to-differentiate-her-firm-in-sometimes-staid-construction-world.
“Kate Gleason.” EngineerGirl, www.engineergirl.org/125335/Kate-Gleason. Accessed 16 July 2022.
“Kate Gleason | American Businesswoman.” Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/biography/Kate-Gleason. Accessed 16 July 2022.
Lewis, Anna M. “Kate Gleason” Women of Steel and Stone: 22 Inspirational Architects, Engineers, and Landscape Designers. 121-130. United States: Chicago Review Press, 2017.
Parker, Sally. “New Book Takes In-Depth Look at Kate Gleason.” Rochester Business Journal, 18 Feb. 2011, rbj.net/2011/02/11/new-book-takes-in-depth-look-at-kate-gleason.
Rochester Regional Library Council. “Kate Gleason.” Western New York Suffragists: Winning the Vote, rrlc.org/winningthevote/biographies/kate-gleason. Accessed 16 July 2022.
“A Young Female Civil Engineering CEO Shares Her Story.” YouTube, uploaded by Engineering Management Institute, 6 Jan. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIg8Nhm9xgo&ab_channel=EngineeringManagementInstitute.
