Mary’s childhood home? Wichita’s Cessna plant as her dad’s shadow. Jim LeSueur, who lived his wisdom (“Kiddo, figure out what you love to do and find somebody to pay you for it”) flew anything with wings. Mary loved art, math and jets. Artists were starving. The only rich artists were the 10 or 12 best in the world. They were all dead. Alive is better. “Kiddo, engineering makes you a better pilot. We might not live to see girls fly military jets. If you’re a great engineer, you can make that your art.” A Navy scholarship covered her Rice ChemE degree; Rickover’s Nuclear Draft changed her flight school orders. Wrapped in khaki through a whirl of shipyards, submarines, carriers, lasers, nuclear plants, doubles volleyball and windsurfing, she’s still getting paid to do what she loves to do.
