This is an edited transcript of an oral history interview of Harriet Zimney conducted by Peter J. Westwick. Harriet Zimney was born circa 1926. She received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aeronautical engineering from the University of Minnesota. Before graduate school she worked one summer for Douglas Aircraft in El Segundo. She attended graduate school as one of the early recipients of a Zonta International fellowship for women engineers. After receiving her master’s degree she stayed at Minnesota as an instructor in propulsion systems until 1951, when she and her husband Charles, also an aeronautical engineer, moved to California. She worked for a year for North American Aviation on the Navaho missile, then briefly for Hydro-Aire, then joined Aerojet in Azusa, where she worked on the Polaris missile. In the mid 1950s she and her husband started the Zimney Corporation, making sounding rockets for the military and the Atomic Energy Commission, including ones used for sampling experiments on nuclear weapons tests. The company first operated out of their house in Pasadena and later moved to Monrovia as it grew. She also had learned to fly as a teenager, later competed in the All-Women's Transcontinental Air Races and Palms to Pines race, and joined the Ninety-Nines organization of female pilots. She was also later involved with the Zonta fellowship board. Zimney died in 2012. [Object file name], Aerospace Oral History Project, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Aerospace engineering--California, Southern--History Aerospace engineers--California, Southern--History Aerospace industries--California, Southern--History--20th century Aircraft industry--California, Southern Airplane racing California--History--1950- Douglas airplanes North American airplanes Polaris (Missile) Sounding rockets Women aerospace engineers Women air pilots--United States Women aircraft industry employees Women in aeronautics Oral histories. (aat)
Source
Aerospace Oral History Project Manuscripts, Huntington Digital Library
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