I was an only child. And dad was, he was a very gentle, very kind man. But he, he treated me like a person. I wasn't put in a box. Like I wasn't “a girl.” And I was, I mean I was a girl that played with dolls. b=But he also taught me how to run a lathe, how to enjoy the outdoors. We went camping all the time. And if there was something I wanted to do that was a little, maybe beyond my age group, he would sit down and say, “Okay. Here's what you need to be responsible for. And if you think you can do it, then yeah.”

And then when I got ready to go to college, my dad said to me, “Computers are the thing of the future. You should go study that.” And I thought, “Okay. He's a smart guy. I'm good at math. That sounds like a good idea.” So I showed up on campus. My first time being alone. And terrified. And I’d signed up for my classes, and I got to the desk where the Dean's secretary was sitting to take money. And she looked at me and she said, “Oh, honey, girls can't take engineering.”

And that was such a shock. Because that's what I was going to do. I mean, that's the first time I ever understood that there were girls and boys, as far as society was concerned. I mean, you can't imagine what that was like to hear those words. You know?

And so I said, “Are you sure?” I wasn't being a smartass. I was just stunned. And she said, “Well, I'm pretty sure, but I'll go check with the dean.” And I said, “That would be nice.” I mean by that time I'm shaking. I'm just shaking. Because I thought, what am I going to do? And that's probably the longest ten minutes in my life. When she comes back, and she's all smiles. And she said, “The Dean said, yes. You can take engineering.” And I thought, well, that's nice.

So I did. And I was the only woman in the engineering college the whole four years. I was treated more as a mascot. I was cute back in those days, so. And some of the teachers were nice. Some of the teachers didn't know what to do with me. But I passed and I got a degree in engineering, and I got to stand up all by myself during graduation. They announced that I was the first woman to graduate from Arizona State with a degree in electrical engineering. And my dad was so proud of me.