Rose A. Carney Papers

File

Identifier: SC-109

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Rose A. Carney papers consist of a variety of items that range from 1942 until 2006. There are Biographical Materials that include Carney's diplomas, dissertations, certificates, and other documents that she received throughout her life. Within this series there is a brief biographical essay written by Carney herself at the time of her retirement in 1990. This document provides insight to the sequence of events that occured in her life.
Additionally there are artifacts from her Professional Activities that include plaques, awards, and mementoes that she was awarded for her dedication to teaching and to science. Many of these Professional Activities artifacts and 3 dimensional which requires them to be in a separate box than the documents. A majority of the collection was fairly easy to identify chronologically, but there are a couple items where the dates are unknown.

Dates

1942 - 2006

Creator

Meeker, Ralph (Collector, Person)
Carney, Rose A., 1920-2007 (Person)

Biographical / Historical

Rose A. Carney was born in 1920, and at the age of 22 she earned her bachelor's degree from Depaul University in 1942. Once graduated, Carney was employed as a research assistant at the Metallurgical laboratory at the University of Chicago which would be known as the Manhattan Project. A year later in 1943, she went back to earn her master's degree from Depaul University and then accepted a job teaching mathematics and phyics at St. Xavier University in 1946. It was during this time that Carney began to work towards her Ph.D. at I.I.T. This degree became difficult for Carney to complete because in 1948 she accepted a position teaching mathematics and physics at St. Procopius College where she was one of the first female professors at the school. At this point the college was only open to male students, which did not change until 1968.

Eventually in 1960, Carney decided to take a 1 year leave of absence so that she could finish her doctorate from I.I.T. Upon the completion of her Ph.D. Carney returned to St. Procopius in 1961 where she had become the Head of the Mathematics Department in 1960, and would become the Chair of the Science Department in 1970. She held these positions unitl 1981. Carney influenced a large number of students through her teaching, and was a spokesperson for the Women and Mathematics Program of the Mathematical Association of Amercia. She remained at St. Procopous, which was changed to Illinois Benedictine College and then changed again to Benedictine University until 1990 when she retired. Up until this point she had also worked as a research assistant at Argonne National Laboratory during the summers.