Women at Work

Beverly Cover Norris, Pioneering Transportation Engineer

Beverly Ann Cover (1940-1991) was a native of Cumberland and a 1958 graduate of Allegany High School. According to an article appearing in the April 1962 edition of The News in Public Roads, she was the first woman highway engineer in the history of the Federal Highway Administration.*

EDITH G. BROCK, 1919-2016

The following obituary appeared in the March 20, 2016 issue of the Cumberland Times-News It is about Edith G. Brock who served as Director of the Ruth Enlow Library and helped oversee the establishment of libraries throughout Garrett County:

OAKLAND — Edith Grace Brock, 96, of Oakland, died on Tuesday, March 15, 2016, at the Dennett Road Manor Nursing Home.

Born on June 17, 1919, in Auburn, N.Y., she was the daughter of the late Walter Burritt and Mabel Louise (Chapin) Brock.

Dr Helen Binnie was the first Physician-Director of Frostburg’s Miners Hospital upon its opening in 1913. The hospital was the first state-supported hospital in the state, and was intended for miners. However, she left after a few months to join her father's private practice in Wisconsin. For some years the hospital had a matron, not a physician in charge.

The following additional information was provided by Garry Ritchie, Curator of the Frostburg Museum in Frostburg, Maryland:

Rosanne Bernstein, Attorney and Businesswoman

Rosanne Bernstein (1922-2017) was sworn in to practice law in Allegany County on October 6, 1941. In this regard she was among the first women to practice law in Allegany County. The following excerpt is from an obituary as it appeared on the Scarpelli Funeral Home website:

Barbara Angle
Barbara Angle was born and raised in the coal-mining region of western Maryland and the grand-daughter of a coal miner. Barbara was a 1965 graduate of St. Peters High School of Westernport, Md. She graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in history and journalism. She worked as an editor at the Bureau of National Affairs in Washington, D.C., until her return home in 1973.

For almost 100 years since its 1906 origins, the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce and its forerunners were primarily a male-dominated business organization.

In 1994 Sharon Cosgrove became the Chamber’s first female Executive Director and served in this capacity until 1998. At the December 2002 Annual Meeting, Barbara Buehl became the first elected female President of the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce serving in this capacity until April 2003 when she became Executive Director.

Anne L. Gormer

Anne Gormer began her banking career in Allegany County in 1943 when she was first employed by Liberty Trust. She held a series of positions over the years rising to senior vice president in 1980, and eventually president of the Liberty Bank of Maryland in 1992. An earlier 1986 merger with WM Bancorp resulted in her being named a senior vice-president and director of the holding company.

Mary Elizabeth Garrett was America’s wealthiest female philanthropist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She had a tendency toward “social activism” and continued her father’s financial support of Johns Hopkins University. She provided critical financial backing to start its School of Medicine, but with a stipulation that female students be admitted on the same terms as men, thus initiating Johns Hopkins as the first co-educational university teaching center for women physicians.

Alta Schrock, 1911 – 2001

Born into a Mennonite family near Grantsville, Alta Schrock pursued learning all her life. Walking five miles to and from school every day as a child, she memorized the Bible, poems, biology and botany. In 1944 she became the first Mennonite woman to earn a PhD, this being in biology, and taught at various universities from 1946 to 1977. She was Professor of Biology at Frostburg State University from 1960 to 1977.

CUMBERLAND — The color purple is often associated with royalty.

It’s also Western Maryland Food Bank Executive Director Diana Loar’s favorite color.

And by the sound of co-workers and friends who attended a retirement celebration in her honor on Thursday, it was clear many think of Loar as royalty.

“I think we’re losing a great lady,” said Chuck Koelker, the food bank’s board of directors president.

“When you think of the food bank, you think of Diana Loar.”