Identifier,500021
Interviewee,Marguerite Jost Hrabak
Date,8/7/14
Interviewer,Joseph Wickens
Abstract,"Marguerite Jost Hrabak, originally a student at Fenn College, graduated from Cleveland State University (CSU) in 1974. Always good with her hands from a young age, Hrabak began at Fenn in 1947 working towards an engineering degree. She discusses how it was being on of two women in a sea of men. She mentions how she left school to raise a family, build a house, work at her father's shop, and begin a small business in her basement with her husband. After a long hiatus, she returned to CSU and graduated with an engineering science degree in 1974. She concludes by talking about what she has done with that degree, and how her family moved from the house they built in Euclid to a farm on the far Eastside of Cleveland."
Tags,"Fenn College, immigration, Germany, machinist, Notre Dame Academy, engineer, Co-Op, World War Two, GI Bill, YMCA, streetcars, Cleveland, Cleveland State University (CSU), classes, NASA, Lincoln Electric, Alcoa, construction, small business, night school, sexism, farm"
Special Notes,
0,"Introductions, She started at Fenn College in 1947; Born in Cleveland"
1,"Her parents emmigrated from Germany in 1927, she was one of two girls and thus became her father's ""oldest son""; Her father had a shop and she worked for him since she was 13, there she learned how to run lathes, presses, other machines in a tool and die shop"
2,"She went to Notre Dame Academy and was good at math and science; In 1947 she went to Fenn College first to study engineering, but also had a plan b to do teaching; says that Fenn had a Co-Op program"
3,"Says that the Co-Op program was valuable because she could earn money; She went to work on a streetcar (10 cents); engineering course was basic; says that this was the time that Gis were coming back from World War 2; she says that in her class there were 700 students in the class and only 2 girls; the guys treated them like little sisters, not dating"
4,She was good in math and she always had someone interested in getting tutored by her; she took the streetcar from East Cleveland throughout her high school and college
5,She also worked in the meat department when she was in high school - learned about butchery; Going to Fenn was another world for her - so many students that they had classes in the YMCA auditorium - told that they had to weed out students
6,"Since they were trying to weed out, she thinks that it could be more intense than it is today; had to be very structured because the Gis needed to keep close track of attendance for their stipends - because of this she was always seated next to Frank Hrabak and they got along"
7,"Talks about the campus, there was only the tower and the YMCA - the YMCA was on prospect and e22nd; these two buildings and institutions were associated from the beginning; She thinks that the upper floors of Fenn had some dorms, but a few - there wasn't much of a campus"
8,"She made good friends with the other girl in her class, she says that there were women in grades above her and she had trouble finding a job; after two years at Fenn, she left school to work at her father's shop again"
9,She left school in 1949 to get married and had 5 children; She talks about her husband - he was good a physics and not grammer - she was the opposite -symbiotic relationship
10,"Story about how he was eloquent, but he never got the grammar; gives a few stories about interactions with professors"
11,"Continues talking about interactions with professors, she talks about a water purification class that she had, most of the students were chemical majors and they would begin with their formulas on tests, and she (not being a chemist) did not know those formulas, she talks about what the professor said; she realized that she did not need the formulas "
12,Once she had that realization she realized that she did not even need a calculator; she ended up getting a hundred percent because she listened to the instructor and she got it even though she did not have the proper background; 
13,"Talks about another professor - production engineering - it was basically machine shop and she had a lot of experience; she made a shaped piece and gave it to the instructor who found imperfections on the optical comparitor and gave her a B, frank brought the same piece up and he got an A"
14,"She asked the instructor about this and he said that he deals with the grades and he said that no women should get an a in production engineering; she went back to school 25 years later and had the same instructor for another class, that time he couldn't give her a lower grade and she got an a"
15,"She talks about her experience with the Co-Op program - they handpicked her situations because she was a girl, she worked for a company that computed for NASA - pre-computerization so they had to do computations by hand - described it"
16,"The work was for a company called ""calculating service""; talks about one day when they got a different formula for the same data - she questioned it, but she was told to follow directions - two days later they got the right formula"
17,"Another Co-Op was cashier for Halle Brothers, calls it the dirtiest job ever, the stores were air-conditioned, but the offices were not they were dying; she had these Co-Ops between 1947 and 1949; most companies saw these as a source of cheap labor - her husband had a job in a foundry"
18,"He was also interested in teaching and he had teaching jobs at night; he was a radioman in the service and he got his second Co-Op in that field; the selection processes for choosing a Co-Op - either the student found one or was assigned; sometimes it fit into the cirriculum, but not always well"
19,"It was a source of earning money, she doesn't remember any advisor or evaluations, the most valuable thing was learning that is not what she wanted to do with her future;"
20,"She went to a sorority, but she did not fit in at all so she did not get invited at all; says there were very few sororities, but they drew from other parts of the college - she doesn't have an idea about how many women there were in the school because the departments were segregated"
21,Talks about why she left in 1949 - she got married; she says that at that time it was important to own a home and they did not like the tract homes at the time - wanted to build their own home
22,"She says that they were engineers, how hard could it be, her husband took 3 months off and they built a house; she couldn't get a loan to continue building their house because they built the home themselves - even though it passed inspection"
23,"Their neighbor across the street was a manager at the Cleveland Trust Bank and he knew about the situation so he got them a loan for $15,000 and the payments were $52/month - a significant amount; for perspective her husband made $300/month first out of school"
24,"He was employeed at Brush Electronics - a teaching job, then he went to Reliance Electric in charge of trainees; She meanwhile, worked at her father's shop - he wanted her to take it over but she couldn't; he sold the business, but they kept an auxillary business at home"
25,"She says that she would do the contract work for Reliance in her basement while her kids were asleep; The business grew to build custom electronic controls and test equipment, only had 2 customers - Procter and Gamble and Alcoa"
26,Talks about what she did for Alcoa - an elipse-o-meter which measures the change in voltage by analyzing light; the prototype was built in the basement and had another engineer who did the programming
27,The auxillary business was ongoing and continued until her husband retired due to illness
28,She talks about Fenn being taken over by Cleveland State and she says that she thought it was progress; She talks about how she decided to go back to CSU - she realized that she has 5 children to educate and she needed to work 
29,"She says that she needed to go back to college to get a degree - they gave her ""life's experience credit"" which helped her immensely; she says that she finished in 4 semesters; gives a typical day's schedule"
30,"She talks about why she decided to go to Fenn, she says its because she went there and they were welcoming adult students - she went back in 1972; She begins talking about how the campus had changed - most notable was the ratio had changed dramatically"
31,"Instead of older Gis, there were immature young kids; she thought that many of these kids were not mature enough to go to school, gives an example of a class that began with over a hundred students and within a week it dropped to 30; this time she drove to campus"
32,"She says that parking was and still is a problem at CSU, talks about one experience with night school and parking; she couldn't get into her car because someone parked too close to her, had to ask someone to move her car"
33,"She took night courses at Fenn and CSU, she says that people went to night classes for a purpose, no messing around; Talks about her interactions with professors the second time around"
34,She thought that the classes were very easy the second time around; not many older people when she was there the second time; it was very business like for her going to school
35,She went in looking for an engineering degree that required the fewest number of credits - called engineering science now called interdisciplanary engineering; describes what that means - interfaces with everything as well as engineering
36,Talks about how she had a good time working because of her deep engineering background
37,"She mentions what she did after she got her degree, she talks about going to a career night for her girls in high school - she told her kids to talk to General Motors institute - got an interview on Monday and a job offer Tuesday"
38,She talks about her daughter's experience and how it cost her nothing - her other daughter did the same thing helped by governmental changes in female employment
39,"When she graduated in 1974, she stood next to a woman reporter from the Cleveland Press in the reception and she got a full page article in the Press"
40,"Due to this article she got only one letter and one phone call, she says where these offers came from; Lincoln Electric had her in for an interview then a job offer"
41,"She talks about her job at Lincoln - she had to learn to weld and spend time on the plant floor; she realized that several things were not being done efficently, but things were difficult to change"
42,"She talks about changing the system - bonuses were given based on performance; talks about seeing two outdated methods, but they couldn't change things because the plans were created by the chairman of the board"
43,"Talks about a third inefficiency, this time she was able to step in and fix something - talks about her methodology"
44,"Due to the fixing of this ineffieincy she was promoted to the purchasing department; two trains of thought, one was my daughter could be an engineer, and the other ways she should stay at home and take care of the kids; she worked there for 10 years and she got promoted a year and a half in"
45,She talks about her job as a purchasing engineer - save money; she said they had problems passing inspection; talks about how people would try to fix the problems
46,She benefitted from the experience that she had working for her father; She spent 10 years working at Lincoln and her husband developed parkinsons and she took over the home business
47,"She talks about the end of her business in more detail, Procter and Gamble consolidated their products to Canada lost that contract"
48,"She says that her husband was very into the outdoors and campiing, but wasn't a purist - had a winnebago; he took the winnebago as a working office into alcoa's plant"
49,They would install the equipment from the Winnebago - talks about a problem that Alcoa had which enveloped their product
50,But when they cleared the damage away and the product worked again; she says that her equipment had to be simple so it was easier to repair
51,She talks about her life after they got rid of the business; the second part of her life is when they moved out to the farm - build their first home in Euclid but she was not happy with city life - she started looking for land
52,She eventually found this farm and it had 117 acres and a 12 room farmhouse - her husband wouldn't get out of the car because the house was in bad condition - eventually convinced her husband
53,They brought a friend who was a carpenter and they changed her husband's mind; they redid the house and then moved - but the house had no amenities yet 
54,Says that moving to the farm was the beginning of her children's independence - they lived there for 35 years and then built a house in the barn - first thing they did was build an elevator
55,He would show everyone what they were doing to this barnhouse; talks about what they did to the house - gives its history
56,She talks about how she figured out the floorplan in the barnhouse - since it was a cube it was quite different - had an utilties corridor
57,She talks about her lasting memory - the idea of interdisciplanry has servied her very well - goes through her current involvement
58,"She says that farmers by her know how to do things, but governmental structures limit them because they are protected from worst-case scenarios that limits their productivity"
59,"She grew up learning how to do things, and she doesn't see today's youth learning how to do things; Thanks and END OF INTERVIEW"
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