Phyllis "Sandy" Evans Miller #34

Phyllis “Sandy” Evans Miller, SWE Founding Member and Charter Member of the Philadelphia Section, was active in the section from the time she was a student at the Drexel Institute of Technology, now Drexel University, in 1946 until she moved to Pittsburgh, PA, after receiving her degree and relocating for a new job. She helped to found the Pittsburgh Section in 1952 and became its first Chairman. While at Drexel, she served as Vice President of the section when it hosted the SWE 1949 Convention and in 1949-1950 as President of the regional Society of Women Engineers that consisted of five undergraduate and two graduate sections at the time. From 1950 to 1952 she served as National Corresponding Secretary during her transition from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.

Phyllis grew up in southeastern Pennsylvania. She graduated from Lower Merion Senior High School, Ardmore, PA in1945 and then continued her education by attending Drexel Institute of Technology to study Mechanical Engineering. She received her B.S. degree in 1950.

While at Drexel, she participated in their cooperative education program and was able to have three work experiences. In 1947, as a Physical Tester for G. & W. H. Corson Co., she performed physical and chemical tests on lime and lime products. In 1948, as an Engineer Trainee, she drafted rocket and allied equipment. In 1949, as an Engineer Trainee at the Frankford Arsenal in Philadelphia, she drafted equipment to control guns and rangefinders and took part in the drafting, design and lab testing of fire control equipment.

After graduating from Drexel, she worked as a draftsman / junior engineer at the Westinghouse Electric Company Atomic Power Division near Pittsburgh, PA. She performed structural engineering tasks, structural design and stress analysis on a nuclear reactor for use on submarines. In 1952 she started work at Bloom Engineering Company in Pittsburgh as a mechanical engineer reporting directly to the company president. She assisted the sales department in their endeavor to sell burner equipment to steel mills. She created technical graphics to show necessary furnace temperatures and times required to heat steel to the desires temperature. Her heat transfer research and calculations aided in the design of furnaces for open-hearth steel mills.

Her hobbies included remodeling a 100 year old farm house, knitting, crocheting, gardening, hooking rugs, reading about and testing self-made model rocket motors, antiques, square dancing, and doing church work. But most importantly, she was a tireless proponent of women’s rights. Phyllis Evans Miller died in 1982.

Sources:
SWE Archives - Member Application
SWE Archives - Draft Resume
Women Can be Engineers Speech at the COE University of Illinois, Urbana. 27 October 1962.
"Sandy Evans is Pres. of Women Engineers." THE TRIANGLE. 22 April 1949.
Philadelphia Section Newsletters
PITTSBURGH POST GAZETTE, Obituary for William E. Miller, Jr., January 8, 1996