Pearl I. Young Research papers, 1821-1968

Pearl I. Young (1895-1968) was the first woman technical employee for the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (now called NASA). Born in October 1895 in Minnesota and raised in North Dakota, Young earned a bachelor's degree with honors in physics, chemistry, and mathematics from the University of North Dakota in 1919. In 1922, she was hired by NACA as a physicist and, in 1929, was appointed Chief Technical Editor of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory’s Research Division. She developed editorial standards for NACA's technical publications and authored the “Style Manual for Engineering Authors,” which became an influential reference. From 1947 to 1958, Young taught engineering physics at Pennsylvania State University, then returned to NACA's Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory in Cleveland (later the NASA Lewis Research Center), where she had also worked beginning in 1949. She remained with NASA until her retirement in 1961. Afterward, she became a full-time researcher, working on a biography of aviation pioneer Octave Chanute with his granddaughter. She died in 1968 at the age of 73.