Mary E. Wesché

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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Sponsor

Honored by:

Mary E. Wesche was first employed in the aviation industry during the latter part of World War II as an airline information specialist at LaGuardia Airport. She maintained a rapport with the tower controllers who occasionally allowed her to work air traffic during off-peak hours. This initial experience led to a position, in 1946, as an Air Traffic Controller at Republic Aviation Corp's control tower on its private field in Farmingdale, L.I., N.Y. At the time, with ATC in its infancy, the federalized Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) only hired male controllers. Republic's private status enabled her to work as one of the world's very first female controllers. There, she met, and incidentally trained, her future husband Bill, a recently discharged WWII B-17 pilot also working as a controller while awaiting assignment to a test pilot position. Family demands necessitated her departure from ATC in October, 1947