Patterson, Jean Nickerson

Jean Nickerson Patterson, a native of Kansas and student at Kansas State University, was chosen along with nearly 100 other college women to participate in the Curtiss-Wright Engineering Cadette Program at Iowa State College (University) in 1943. Sponsored by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, this was a nationwide program designed to ease wartime labor shortages, and included more than 700 female students at institutions such as Iowa State, Cornell, Purdue, and the University of Minnesota. Iowa State's 10 month course was focused on aeronautical engineering and after receiving a certificate, the women were then hired by Curtiss-Wright. Patterson married Ben Patterson in 1945, and later went back to Kansas State to earn her B.A. in Medical Technology. In addition to working for Curtiss-Wright, she was also employed by the Elgin Case Company and the County Engineer in Independence, Kansas. She remains active in Curtiss-Wright Cadette Reunions.