Society News: Member News
Emily Schlesinger 1915-2008
Contributed By Rudy Joenk
The inspiration for our "service to the Society" award died November 9, 2008; Emily Schlesinger was 93.
 |
Emily Schlesinger showing her IEEE Third Millennium Medal at her residence in Cockeysville, Maryland, on 23 January 2000. |
Emily was an Associate Member of the IRE, which merged with the AIEE in 1963 to become the IEEE, for 18 years beginning in 1956. After becoming a Member in 1976, she quickly became a Senior Member the same year. She advanced to Life Senior Member in 1988. Emily joined the Professional Communication Society (then the IEEE Group on Engineering Writing and Speech) in 1964.
Emily received A.B. and M.A. degrees in physics from Goucher College and Mount Holyoke College, respectively, and earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English at the University of Maryland. She was a 30-year employee of the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (which generously supported her IEEE activities), where she wrote and edited technical and procedural documents.
Early on in the IEEE, Emily was quick to shoulder responsibility. PCS minutes show that she served as secretary under three presidents, in 1970, 1971, and 1972. Not long thereafter, she served two terms as president herself, in 1976 and 1977, and thus, was the first female president of an IEEE Society.
And while she was president, she also produced our newsletter from late 1976 through early 1982. Further, in 1977, she recruited and mentored a new editor for the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, which had reached a nadir the previous year. In 1978, Emily received the Alfred N. Goldsmith Award for outstanding achievement in engineering communication. She was a member of the PCS Administrative Committee from 1970 through 1986.
Emily had a great sense of humor. On becoming secretary, she admitted that, as a writer, she had no excuse to decline. On becoming president, she wrote that "I was a fool rushing in." On taking on the newsletter, she said, "so I wrote it myself—what cheek!" On finding herself alone after a 1985 AdCom dinner as the waiter approached with the check, she sent a runner to find the treasurer, saying, "I don't want to be washing dishes in my new suit."
She also found time to write Boy Friday: Turnabout Is Fair Play, in 1973, which was a 30-minute, four-actor play mocking traditional (discriminatory) attitudes in a company managed by women. And in 1978, she organized and chaired PCS's Practicum in Communication in Richmond, Virginia.
Among her last professional appearances, Emily joined us at IPCC 93 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And she was guest of honor at IPCC 95 in Savannah, Georgia, when the first Emily K. Schlesinger Award for outstanding service to PCS was presented. Last but not least, Emily received an IEEE Third Millennium Medal in 2000 for significant contributions to the Institute. According to her daughter, she "followed her passion for writing and editing and wordplay."
She will be greatly missed, but her legacy of contribution lives on in PCS.
Nominations now open for 2009 Alfred N. Goldsmith Award
By Muriel Zimmerman, PCS Awards Chair
Nominations are now open for 2009 Alfred N. Goldsmith Award for Distinguished Contributions to Engineering Communication.
Members of the technical communication community are invited to submit nominations for the 2009 Alfred N. Goldsmith Award for Distinguished Contributions to Engineering Communication. A nomination form, with links to information about criteria for the award and a list of previous winners, is available online at http://ewh.ieee.org/soc/pcs/index.php?q=node/164.
Nominations are open until March 1, 2009.