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The evolution of the cold chain is the product of the combined contributions of many people. One of these early contributors is Mary Engle Pennington, the first woman member of the American Society of Refrigerating Engineers (A.S.R.E.), one of ASHRAE's predecessors.
Her efforts in the early 1900s led to a number of changes in the way perishable food is handled at the packing house, in transit, in storage and at the final destination. Such were her accomplishments that a magazine in 1932 called her "patron saint of refrigeration."
BORN OCT. 8, 1872, in Nashville, Tenn., to a Quaker family, she attended the University of Pennsylvania. She completed requirements for bachelor's degrees in chemistry and botany but was refused the degrees because science degrees were awarded only to men. The faculty, however, declared her an "extraordinary case" under an old statute which allowed her to earn...