When Sandia was separated from Los Alamos in 1949, George Landry became its first president and Crawford was selected to be his secretary. Landry left in 1952 but she stayed on. This cartoon from a 1949 Sandia Labs Bulletin reflects both the male and female stereotypes of the period. Female secretaries were seen as beautiful caretakers and male bosses were helpless without them. The passage of time has modified this view.
Secretaries are still invaluable, but now their bosses are sometimes female.
In 1958, Sandia s Personnel Department installed a centralized Telecord system. The system allowed dictation to be made into instruments at various locations, while transcription was done at this central location. Dee Fenstermacher was a secretary in Sandia s Motion Picture Division when this 1959 photograph was taken. Secretarial duties vary with the work of the department. Fenstermacher is checking a script against a film s narration.