Beatrice Aitchison

Beatrice Aitchison (July 18, 1908 – September 22, 1997) was an American mathematician, statistician, and transportation economist who directed the Transport Economics Division of the United States Department of Commerce, and later became the top woman in the United States Postal Service and the first policy-level appointee there.

Early life Aitchison's mother was a musician and her father, Clyde Bruce Aitchison, was a lawyer and economist who served on the Interstate Commerce Commission. She was born on July 18, 1908, in Portland, Oregon. Aitchison lived in Portland until 1916 and then in Washington, D.C., for the rest of her childhood.

Education Aitchison attended Central High School. She was part of the Phi Beta Kappa sorority she also published two papers in the same area.

Career Because of the Great Depression, employment as a mathematician was hard to find: she applied to 145 schools but was only able to find a one-semester temporary position, substituting for a sick instructor at the University of Richmond's Westhampton College for Women. Following this, she worked from 1934 to 1935 as a lecturer in statistics at American University in Washington, D.C.

Awards and recognitions The United States Civil Service Commission gave Aitchison one of its first Federal Woman's Awards in 1961 chosen from a field of more than 25,000, She won the Career Service Award of the National Civil Service League in 1970.

Death Aitchison died of congestive heart failure at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C., on September 22, 1997.