Beverly Irene Smith was born July 15, 1933, in Dunlap, Iowa, to Charles J. and Zara Keehner Smith. Beverly attended elementary and high schools in Arizona and Iowa, where, in 1951, she graduated from Denison High School, having served as vice president of her senior class and having received the Bausch-Lomb Science Award, the DAR Gold Medal History Award, and first place in the VFW county essay contest.
Beverly entered Iowa State College in the fall of 1951, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in December 1954. She was a member of the Kappa Delta Sorority and served as president of the Science Women's Club, as secretary of the Science Council, as editorial secretary of Sketch, as secretary of the Iowa State Scientist, as a member of Cardinal Guild, and as chairman of the Student Advisory Curriculum Committee, which, in conjunction with the Faculty Curriculum Committee, restructured course requirements in the Science Division. She was tapped for Mortar Board and was chosen for membership in the Phi Kappa Phi and Lampos honoraries.
Following college graduation, Beverly worked two years in Corpus Christi, Texas for the American Red Cross as a social worker in its Service in Military Hospitals program. In 1957, she moved to New York City, where, following a three-month stint at Cambridge Business School, she joined Mutual of New York, first as the secretary to the Director of Economic Research, later as a computer programmer, and finally as a programming analyst.
With the Honeywell Data Processing Division, starting in 1963, Beverly worked as a computer systems representative. Her first assignment was the installation of a Honeywell computer system at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, where she was instrumental in the development of the concept of computerized “insurance reapportionment” in hospital billing. In 1964, Beverly transferred to Honeywell’s Education Department, where she designed and implemented a training course for computer systems analysts. This course, entitled “Systems Investigation, Analysis, and Design,” was subsequently used by Honeywell throughout the United States and Canada.
On January 12, 1965, at Christ Church in the Bronx, Beverly married Roger F. Egan, whom she had met when they were both working at Montefiore Hospital. On December 4, 1965, their son, Todd, was born. In January of 1967, the Egans moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where Roger studied at the University of Nebraska and Beverly worked first as an Evaluation Systems Specialist for Northern Systems Company, a subsidiary of the Northern Natural Gas Company, and then as a systems analyst for Pangenerix Management Systems, Inc.
In the fall of 1974, Roger Egan’s employer, the Wells Fargo Alarm Services Division, transferred the family to San Jose, California, where Beverly settled happily into housewifery and volunteer work for the Cub Scouts, the Boy Scouts, the Hillbrook School in Los Gatos, California, and the Kappa Delta Alumnae Association in San Jose. As a frequent contributor to “Letters to the Editor” in the newspaper, she garnered two Silver Pen Awards from the San Jose Mercury News.
As of 2004, the Egans are retired in Fremont, California. |
