Leah Moncure's relentless determination paved roads for millions of Texans – and gave the green light to generations of future engineers.
Connie Schroeder is one of those engineers.
“In 1988, I received my professional engineer license – Engineer No. 65299. In 2017, I was elected the first female mayor for the city of Bastrop. I’ve always thought Leah might get a kick out of that,” said Schroeder, an alumna of the Fariborz Maseeh Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin.
It’s a good guess that Leah would indeed get a kick out of that; she knows all about firsts. In 1938, she became Texas’ first female licensed professional engineer, Engineer No. 2250, by the Texas Society of Professional Engineers.
Earlier this year, representatives of the many organizations Moncure impacted – the City of Bastrop, Texas Department of Transportation, the Cockrell School of Engineering and many more – gathered to honor her legacy. In January, the Texas Historical Commission and Bastrop County unveiled a historical marker at Moncure’s childhood home in Bastrop, recognizing her significant achievements and her lasting impact on both the engineering profession as part of the commission’s Undertold program.
“I'm happy to report that what Leah Moncure started has changed the world,” said Bob Gilbert, chair of the Cockrell School of Engineering’s civil engineering department, from which Moncure received a degree in 1937. “We currently have a thousand undergraduate students in our department and half of them are women. I'm looking forward to Leah's legacy continuing on and helping make engineering education and engineering practice inclusive for everyone.”
Moncure’s early interest in engineering was inspired by her father, a surveyor, who would take her out on horseback on his surveying trips. Over time, she became a competent assistant, making many of his maps from her own calculations.
She graduated from Baylor University as a double major in math and education in 1925. After that, Moncure taught math in Houston for a year, according to a 1977 biography written by Moncure’s twin sister Grace Moncure Kunkel.
She was paid $133.33 a month as a teacher: “’Not too bad … For a lady, and it might be fun,’” Leah wrote to her father at the time, per the biography.
But her interest in engineering never waned. After teaching, she jumped at the opportunity for a three-year contract with Howe and Wise Consulting Firm. Moncure drafted and laid grade lines for county highways. When the Great Depression hit, she decided it was time to go back to school. She enrolled in the civil engineering program at UT.
Moncure interrupted her studies several times to work in offices of district engineers long enough to pay for another semester or two of study. After many starts and stops, she earned a civil engineering degree in 1937. The next year – in April 1938 – Leah became Engineer No. 2250, the state's first woman to register as a professional engineer and the only female member on the state's roster for close to 15 years. She picked up another "first" when she became the first lady life member of the National Society of Professional Engineers.
Moncure went to work with the Texas Highway Department (today known as TxDOT), where she would spend the next 30+ years. She moved all over the state, including stops in Houston, Beaumont, Lufkin and Galveston. Her work was concerned with research in traffic, intersection channelizing, embankment settlements and expansion joints. Later, she handled right of way deeds and titles and easements – dealing with governmental agencies and corporations. She also handled the easements for road materials sources. Of all of these varied phases of civil engineering in which Leah served the profession, she always claimed road design and research were her “first love."
Moncure’s trailblazing spirit paved the way for the more than 300 female engineers that work at TxDOT today.
“I'm honored to be here celebrating Leah's legacy and the impact it's had on engineering,” said Gilbert. “In 1937, Leah was our very first woman graduate, and a year later she went on to become the very first professional engineer who was a woman in the state of Texas. In 1980, the Texas Society of Professional Engineers created the Leah Moncure Memorial Scholarship for students in our department. More than a hundred people have been helped by that scholarship since 1980.”
Schroeder, the former mayor of Bastrop, was one of those people. She received the scholarship in 1983, helping her finish her studies and launch her engineering career.
“Thank you for all the women between 2250 and 65299, and for all the women who have come since,” said Schroeder. “We're grateful that Leah Moncure made history in Texas.”
A final word from Grace
“In sum, this writer, her twin sister, is eternally mindful of Leah’s attributes of true greatness which include among many others: her high intelligence and professional competence; her courage; her determination to succeed single-handed in the face of over-whelming forces of opposition; her ability to face realities and to make calculated decisions from which she never backed away; her leadership talent; her optimism; her perennial sense of humor; her sense of humility that caused her to heap the credit for her achievements on others; her tremendous capacity for compassion; her dedication to the finer virtues of truth, honesty, reliability and accuracy; her ability to know exactly who she was and where she was going; her commitment to a dream that would not go away and her decision to counter all odds that stood in the way of its realization.”
