Pearl I. Young: Scientist, professor, journalist, technical editor

Where to start with this extraordinary woman, born in Minnesota, USA on October 12, 1895 and raised in North Dakota? Pearl Irma Young held several science-related positions in life. Her major contributions were in the NASA predecessor organization NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics), but her background encompassed several occupations and interests related to physics, aeronautical history, teaching, and writing standards for engineers. Read on for more on her story!

(Click on images to enlarge.)

To pay her way through high school, Pearl Young left home in North Dakota at 11 and worked as a "domestic", someone who helps others in housekeeping duties. She later attended Jamestown College there, and graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of North Dakota. She graduated with with honors in 1919, with a triple major in physics, chemistry and mathematics. Additionally, she was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, "America's most prestigious academic honor society". It's no wonder that the university hired her to teach physics.

Two years later, in April 1922, she joined the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory of NACA In Hampton, Virginia with its staff of 32 people. 

Langley wind tunnel (Wikipedia)

Young was the first professional woman employee there and the second in all of the U.S government (the other was a physicist in the National Bureau of Standards). All other women were office workers such as mail sorters, payroll and file clerks, receptionists, secretaries, stenographers, telephone operators, and typists. The group shot below in 1930 shows only 14 women (lower right corner) among all the men.

Engineer Henry J.E. Reid was initially her co-worker (and the same age), then in 1926 he became the director of her laboratory (called "engineer in charge" at that time). 

Henry J.E. Reid, 1928 (from Engineer in Charge, 1987, NASA)

In Young's own words, "We made, designed, we repaired, calibrated -- everything about the airplane and instruments" which recorded "altitude, air speed, engine speed, and acceleration of an airplane during maneuvers". (Note: a lot of her personal history and work at NACA is included in the Caitlin Milera's PhD dissertation "Ms. Pearl Irma Young: "Raising hell" for women in STEM fields and women at NASA, 1914-1968", pages 2-5 and 108-207.)

Young, around 1929 in the Instrument Research Laboratory (Wikipedia)

She spent the summer of 1927 touring aircraft research labs in England and Germany to learn more about them.

In the late 1920s, she noticed that many NACA engineers' writing style on their technical reports was not consistent. Poor writing not only made it difficult for people to read reports but also to file them in an organized system. She pointed these problems out to Henry Reid, and is quoted as saying, "I was interested in good writing and suggested the need for a technical editor. The engineers lacked the time to make readable reports." Essentially, she went against the grain of the male engineers at NACA and their military and industry partners, who wanted reports out quickly and didn't care about quality as much.

Consequently, she was given the task of technical editing for NACA, but it wasn't until 1935 that her position officially changed from Junior Physicist government grade P-1 to Assistant Technical Editor grade CAF-7 (CAF=clerical, administrative, and fiscal), even though she was assistant to nobody. She assembled a team of eight women to edit and proofread the many NACA reports that were generated.

Covers of several types of NACA engineering reports

Young's idea was to have first drafts inspected by other engineers, and then her team took over to polish them for precision and logic. It was not always easy to convince male engineers to improve their writing, though. Besides the gender issues that she and her editorial staff faced in streamlining reports and bulletins, they were also challenged by needing to understand a variety of science and engineering topics. Fortunately, they all had degrees in some field of science. However, none of them were English majors! Young's classification changed from "assistant" to "associate" in 1941.

NACA editor assisting an engineer to write a technical report (NASA)

During the 1930s, though, she took extension classes in English and newswriting from Columbia University and the College of William and Mary. Pearl supplemented her salary by reporting and feature writing part-time for the Norfolk-Ledger Star and Norfolk-Ledger Dispatch. Her articles were about dog shows, horse shows, debuts, inaugurations, and contests, and she even had a cover story interview with Eleanor Roosevelt.

In 1943, Young transferred from the LMAL site in Hampton, Virginia to NACA's new Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory (AERL) in Cleveland, Ohio. She set up a technical editing staff there, too, and she published her most famous work, the Style Manual for Engineering Authors. It was used by many agencies for decades. Officially, this was also when her title changed to Technical Editor, a little late in the making but still well deserved.

Pearl Young (far right, seated) and her 1947 editing team (NASA Glenn Research Center History Office)

During World War II, her team's duties were vital, as LMAL's focus centered on aircraft configurations, and reports for the military had become shorter out of necessity and efficiency. Data on refinements made in aircraft were shared with the Army and Navy as quickly as possible.

Pearl left NACA altogether four years later to teach engineering physics at Pennsylvania State University for 10 years. Military veterans were returning from World War II, and she "felt there was a great need for qualified teachers in higher education". She originally wanted to teach at a military university in Japan then, but General Douglas MacArthur stymied that with his attitude that "there will be no women physics teachers in Japan as long as I'm in command". So, if was off to Pennsylvania instead.

In 1948, perhaps just to show that she was still very aware of the need for good writing skills among student and working engineers, she published a scientific paper in the American Journal of Physics, entitled The Responsibility of the Teacher of College Physics for the Student's Facility in American Prose. Her introduction (below) showed how science writers and English teachers should collaborate to produce good writing.

She loved aviation and its history. In addition to her 1927 visit to Europe, she took two trips aboard the zeppelin Hindenburg in May and June of 1936 to and from the U.S. and Germany. She said it was her "most memorable experience". During 1947, she indulged her curiosity in aeronautical history by starting a collection of biographical works on French-American aviation pioneer Octave Chanute, and later she published on it. She also catalogued information on German airship designer Ferdinand von Zeppelin, French aviation designer and engineer Alphonse de Pénaud, and the inventor of the wind tunnel,  Francis Wenham.

Octave Chanute and his 1896 biplane hang glider (Wikipedia)

In 1957, she briefly returned to the NACA office (incorporated into NASA in 1958) in Cleveland. There, she had the new title of Technical Literature Analyst and wrote on subjects involving astrophysics and spectroscopic analyses of plasma. She also gave lectures at scientific conferences on pioneer aviators and technical writing.

In 1961, she retired from NASA. For two years after that, she taught physics at Fresno State University.

Pearl Young never learned to drive a car, and in her will, she left about $15,000 to the city of Hampton, VA for the construction of benches and shelters at bus stops. She traveled extensively and had a flair for photography and poetry, and people knew her for her sense of humor. She was also active in the YWCA.

On her 1927 trip to Europe, she wrote "The channel is opening her arms to us, the queer uneasiness returns, a whole continent of irregular verbs." An unsung hero in the scientific and engineering world, Pearl Young's award and recognition mostly came after she died on June 16, 1968. NASA built an auditorium named after her in 1995 and in 2014 an entire theater.

Little in life deterred her, whether as an educator, scientist, speaker, or editor. One of her diary entries says it all: "Worry is like a rocking chair; gives you something to do but gets you nowhere."