Hilda Counts
Hilda Counts (1893–1989) was an American electrical engineer and a pioneer for women in engineering. She was the first woman to earn an electrical engineering degree from the University of Colorado.
She was born on September 16, 1893, in Runnels County, Texas, to Thomas Peter Counts and Sylvania Whisnant Counts, and she had a younger brother named Oakley Ford. She earned an associate degree at the University of Colorado, then taught high school math and physics for two years. She returned to the university and graduated in 1919 as the first woman to earn an electrical engineering degree there.
Counts worked for Westinghouse Electric Corporation, then planned to return to school for a higher degree. She married Arthur T. Edgecomb around 1926 and took a break from work for several years. After a 14-year gap, she returned to work with the Rural Electrification Administration in Washington, D.C. She retired in 1963 but stayed involved in engineering work into her 80s. She died on May 17, 1989, in Olney, Maryland, at age 95.
In 1919, Counts and Lou Alta Melton helped start the American Society of Women Engineers and Architects. They wrote to many U.S. universities to learn how many women were studying engineering. Many replies said the schools did not have, or expect to have, women engineers, yet about 200 women were studying engineering nationwide. The founders, with support from Elsie Eaves, announced the new association in 1919–1920. The group did not last long, but it helped pave the way for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). Counts continued to focus on creating and supporting organizations for women in engineering. She also served on the board of the District of Columbia Society of Professional Engineers. The SWE now offers the Pioneer Scholarship in memory of Hilda Counts, Elsie Eaves, and Lou Alta Melton.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 05:32 (CET).