Margaret Ingels was born on October 25, 1892 in Paris, Kentucky. She came to the University of Kentucky hoping to study architecture but there was no degree granting program on the campus during that time. Dean F. Paul Anderson persuaded her instead to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering and in 1916, Margaret Ingels became the first woman at UK to earn a Bachelor’s of Mechanical Engineering. Upon graduation, she accepted a position in the engineering department of the Chicago Telephone Company. After a brief term of employment, she joined the Carrier Lyle Heating and Ventilation Corporation, New Jersey. She left Carrier to return to the University of Kentucky in order to finish a Master’s degree in engineering, graduating in 1920, again as the first woman. Ingels was the second woman engineering graduate in the United States and the first woman to receive a professional degree of Mechanical Engineer.
|At the forge, circa 1916|
Because of her achievements, both educational and occupational, Margaret Ingels was chosen, along with Eleanor Roosevelt, as a recipient of the 1940 Women's Centennial Congress. She was also awarded an honorary law degree in 1957 by the University of Kentucky. The University of Kentucky College of Engineering inducted Margaret Ingels into its 1993 Hall of Distinction. A University of Kentucky alumnus and a pioneer in the air conditioning industry, Margaret Ingels passed away in Lexington, Kentucky on December 13, 1971.