[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 65 (Wednesday, May 20, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E918-E919]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES FIRST FEMALE ENGINEER RETIRES

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ELLEN O. TAUSCHER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 20, 1998

  Mrs. TAUSCHER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Betty Carrell, 
a constituent from Livermore, California and one of science's true 
female pioneers.
  While at Oregon State University in the 1950s, Betty Carrell was the 
only female student enrolled in the university's engineering program. 
In fact, because of her welding classes, Mrs. Carrell was the only 
woman allowed to wear pants on campus.
  In 1959, Mrs. Carrell graduated and was quickly hired by Sandia 
National Laboratories in Livermore, California where she became their 
first female engineer. After five ground breaking years, where she was 
the only woman among the 350 engineers at Sandia, Betty left just prior 
to the birth of her first child.
  While raising her two children, who it should be noted are now both 
mechanical engineers, Betty somehow found time to serve on the 
Livermore School Board, including two terms as its president. Among her 
other civic activities, she also sat on the Chabot Community College 
Foundation and the Livermore Chamber of Commerce.
  In 1984, she returned to Sandia where she worked on a number of 
projects including solar thermal technology, warhead dismantling 
programs and toxic waste reduction. Betty is most proud of the 
environmental management work she did in Washington, D.C. for two years 
while on loan to the Department of Energy. Earlier this year at the age 
of 60 and after 20 fulfilling years at Sandia, Betty Carrell retired 
from the working world.
  Betty Carrell is truly an inspiration to young woman everywhere who 
dream of entering the workplace as scientists and engineers. At an 
early age, she shared her parent's love of math and science so it was a 
natural for her to want to become an engineer.

[[Page E919]]

  Betty can be delighted with the progress women have made in the 
sciences. Of the 630 technical engineers at Sandia today, 107, 17 
percent of them, are women. Betty Carrell should take great pride in 
the trail she blazed for women everywhere in engineering and in the 
sciences. We in the 10th Congressional District are extremely fortunate 
to have someone as special and as courageous as Betty Carrell living in 
our community. I applaud her for her efforts on behalf of women 
everywhere and I wish her the best in her well-deserved retirement.

                          ____________________