Oral history interview with Mary Shutt

Abstract

Mary Shutt graduated from Purdue University in 1980 with a degree in industrial engineering, finding it a supportive educational environment. After interviewing with a number of companies, she landed a job offer with Sperry Univac in the Twin Cities. Her first responsibilities were material-based planning and manpower projections, working initially at Univac’s Shepard Road factory site. She became a specialist with Univac’s MAPPER software, suitably modified to calculate real-time “what-if” scenarios that were useful in proposal preparation and planning (for example) for the UYK-43 and UYK-44 programs. Subsequently, she worked with industrial automation and factory design, then moved into proposal development, project management, and contracts. A major effort was the Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM). When Lockheed Martin’s Eagan facility closed, she moved to PDA which continued work for the U.S. Navy. She remarks on changes she observed in corporate culture with the Unisys merger and Lockheed Martin management.

This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”