Claim: Beatrice Hicks, born in 1919 in Orange, a township in Essex County, New Jersey, decided at an early age that she wished to be an engineer.
Evidence: Beatrice Alice Hicks (January 2, 1919 – October 21, 1979) was an American engineer, the first woman engineer to be hired by Western Electric, and both co-founder and first president of the Society of Women Engineers. Beatrice Hicks was born in 1919 in Orange, New Jersey, to William Lux Hicks, a chemical engineer, and Florence Benedict. The City of Orange is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. Hicks decided at an early age that she wished to be an engineer.