Elsie Eaves

Elsie Eaves (born May 5, 1898 – died March 27, 1983) was the first female associate member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and a founding member of the American Association of Cost Engineers (now AACE International; the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering).

Life

The Idaho Springs, Colorado-born Eaves earned her civil engineering degree at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1920. In 1926 she started working for McGraw-Hill in New York City for the Engineering News-Record Department. In 1927, she was the first woman admitted to full membership to the American Society of Civil Engineers. In 1945, she became the manager of Business News. She was the first woman to be admitted to the American Association of Cost Engineers in 1957. She retired in 1963, but continued practicing as an adviser to the National Commission on Urban Affairs on the subject of housing costs. She advised the International Executive Service Corps about construction costs in Iran.