Geraldine M. Hoch

Geraldine Holm Hoch (June 10, 1924 – May 3, 1973) was an American chemical engineer who was one of the first women to work at Pratt & Whitney, Northrop Grumman, Bendix Corporation, the Midwest Research Institute and Lockheed Martin. She patented corrosion prevention systems for the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar and used on the Boeing 747.

Early life and education Geraldine Marie Holm was born in Independence, Missouri. Geraldine (Gerry) graduated from high school at the age of 15, and won an award as the best student in English. She attended Southwest Missouri State Teacher's College, which is now part of Missouri State University and graduated with highest honors. She was selected in 1940 for "Who's Who for colleges and universities". While still in college, she taught physics classes for the United States Air Force at the age of 17.

In 1950, Gerry moved to Kansas to start a family. From 1950 to 1952 she worked at Bendix Corporation as chemical engineer and handled research and development in nickel electroforming. She then joined Midwest Research Institute and furthered her research as an electrochemist. She designed the electroforming facility to produce cylindrical shells for missile body wind tunnel studies. At MRIGlobal, she became aware of the gender paygap. Despite working on materials science for the space program, she was paid as an administrator.

In 1965, she returned to California and accepted a position as a research chemist for Lockheed Martin, (aka Lockheed Calif Company, Rye Canyon Research Division) where she worked in metallurgy.

Works at Northrop Grumman credit her corrosion prevention efforts in the design of the fuselage panels for Boeing 747s.

She presented her work at the 1971 NATO conference held in Brussels, Belgium.