Category: Other Careers
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Jessie Yearance Cann
1882-1964 Jessie Cann was the first woman to gain a Phd in Chemistry at Columbia.* Jessie was born in Newark to Frank (Newark alderman) and Fanny Cann and was a 1901 graduate of Newark High. She graduated Goucher College and became a science teacher at Belleville High. Her obituary stated she also taught at Newark…
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Marleny Franco
1955- Marleny Franco is the founder of the Greater Newark Conservancy. She was executive director of the Conservancy for many years. She was previously director of the Rutgers Urban Gardening Program in Newark. Marleny was born in Colombia. She lived in Newark from the early 1980s to about 2000. She came to Newark, after attending…
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Sara Jane Ash
1886-1973 Sarah Jane Ash was one of only two woman engineers at NJ Bell Telephone Company as of 1937. She started in 1902, as a phone operator. She said, “I like my work. Every phase of it is very engrossing.” Born in Paterson, Sarah Jane worked at Bell in Paterson and other places until 1929…
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Ellen C. King
c. 1839-1936 Ellen C. King was the daughter of Mary Thompson King and sister of Harriet King Brown and Marcia King Stillwell. She was born at 70 Warren Street and lived there most of her life. She lived to age 97. Ellen went to North Carolina after the Civil War to help establish a school…
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Ruth B. Demerast Breder Porter
1902-1971 In 1927, listed by Sunday Call as “the only woman director of a scientific station in the United States”. She was the director of the Wyanokie Zoological Station in Haskell. As of 1930, she was still listed as “of Newark” but was working at the New York Aquarium. She traveled internationally with her scientific…
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Doris Thompson Dorsey
1911-1985 Doris Dorsey was the first Black woman supervisor in the Newark Post Office in 1966. She was “the only woman in an 18 member section”. Doris had been a Postal employee since 1942. She worked supervising West Station 255 Springfield Ave, before she was named foreman in charge of the supply division. She grew…
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Edythe Raabe
1907-1977 Edythe Raabe was the first woman graduate of Newark College of Engineering (now NJIT) in 1930. She was the first woman in the United States to receive a degree in chemical engineering. The Sunday Call reported she was the only female student at the College in 1928. During college she was employed by Bamberger…
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Jacqueline “Jackie” Rendleman Jones
c. 1951-2021 Jackie Jones was the first woman firefighter at the Newark Fire Department in 1981, along with Ethel Goldsberry who was later removed. In 1982, she was the only woman firefighter of over 600! She said being the city’s only woman firefighter was “rough in the beginning. I was not used to the men…