Dorothy Schnabel, one of very few women in engineering when she graduated from CCNY in 1954, has been inducted into Tau Beta Pi.
Sixty-eight years after her graduation as one of the few women in her field, City College of New York alumna Dorothy Schnabel is celebrating induction into Tau Beta Pi (TBP), the oldest engineering honor society in the country.
From CCNY’s Class of 1954, Schnabel graduated cum laude with a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering at a time when very few women studied in the school of engineering.
During her time in what’s now the Grove School of Engineering, Schnabel was active in the Society of Women Engineers, elected to Eta Kappa Nu – the electrical engineering honor society – and was awarded the Women’s Badge of TBP. However, at the same time of this award, women were not allowed to be full members of TBP.
“I was admitted to CCNY in February of 1952 when very few engineering schools admitted women,” Schnabel said. “Graduate women engineers in the U.S. were estimated to be less than one half percent.”
Schnabel praises her education at CCNY for giving her the tools to succeed professionally, including courses in electrical engineering that focused on early computer design. After graduation, Schnabel stayed on at CCNY as a lecturer, while simultaneously pursuing a master’s degree in electrical engineering at Columbia University.
She then spent much of her career at IBM Corporation, where she designed logic for mainframe computers, including an early machine that was devised for code cracking. She also worked as an engineer and a program manager, supervising engineers across several disciplines, in turn supporting the development and manufacturing of large high-performance mainframe computers.
In tribute to her time at CCNY, Schnabel established an endowed scholarship in the Grove School of Engineering for students who are studying either electrical engineering or computer science. In 2015, she received the Townsend Harris Medal – the highest recognition of The City College Alumni Association for outstanding alumni achievement.
An active volunteer in her church and community, Schnabel also tutored children in mathematics, and encouraged many girls to consider the STEM profession.
She said of her induction, “This is primarily to recognize of the students here whose excellent scholarship, attainments, and interest in engineering have made them eligible for membership in Tau Beta Pi,” Schnabel said. “My congratulations and very best wishes are for them. May they have stimulating and challenging careers as they become the inventors of new technologies to benefit mankind.”
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Max Dorfman/Jay Mwamba
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