Houston, Texas (April 13, 1929 – January 27, 2019) 89 yrs

Yvonne Y. Clark was a pioneer for African-American and women engineers. She was the first woman to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering at Howard University, the first woman to earn a master’s degree in Engineering Management from Vanderbilt University, and the first woman to serve as a faculty member in the College of Engineering and Technology at Tennessee State University, afterward becoming a professor emeritus. Heat transfer sounds dull—until you consider rocket engines. Clark specialized in keeping systems stable under extreme temperatures, including Saturn V components. As one of the earliest Black women in mechanical engineering, she lit minds and machines.