Women’s History Month // Catherine Fitzgerald
By: Taking Off blog
Catherine Fitzgerald was the first employee hired by Huff-Daland Dusters. Huff-Daland Dusters was destined to become Delta Air Lines and Catherine Fitzgerald was to be one of the first women elected to the board of directors of a U.S. airline.
The Huff Daland airplane manufacturing company persuaded her to leave her home in Ogdensburg, New York in 1926, and transfer to their crop-dusting operation in Monroe, Louisiana, beginning February 7.
When Huff Daland sold its dusting interests in 1928, Catherine Fitzgerald stayed with the newly formed company and it was she who suggested the name “Delta” after the Mississippi delta region which was the company’s principal area of early operations.
During the early days, “Miss Fitz” served as accountant, corresponding secretary and purchasing agent. When Delta began passenger service, she also served as “meteorologist” in the headquarters next to the Monroe airfield. If she could see the trees at a certain railroad crossing in one direction, and the water tower in the other, the weather was “clear,” and she would advise the pilots accordingly.
Catherine Fitzgerald served first as company secretary and director on the Delta Board of Directors from December 31, 1930 until May 31, 1934. She was then appointed Assistant Treasurer and Personal Secretary to the President. She served as personal secretary to C.E. Woolman, Delta’s principal founder and first CEO, for forty years until his death in 1966. Fitzgerald retired from Delta on July 1, 1968 as Assistant Treasurer, living near the Atlanta airport until her death on September 10, 1987.