Return to David P. Morgan Article Awards
John O. (Jack) Holzhueter, Mazomanie, Wisconsin, received the David P. Morgan Article Award for 2011 for “Olive Dennis: B&O Polymath,” which appeared in Railroad Heritage 24 (2010), published by the Center for Railroad Photography & Art. The award is named for the former editor of Trains magazine.
Holzhueter is a consultant to the Center, Madison, Wisconsin, and a retired researcher/editor for the Wisconsin Historical Society. The article, a collaborative effort, began with Shirley Burman Steinheimer’s files about women railroaders. “We are indebted to Jack Holzhueter and those who assisted him for doing the requisite research and writing this fascinating article about a truly remarkable woman,” Lyle Key, Nashville, Tennessee, CSX (retired), wrote in the award citation. He is a member of the article awards committee.
“The noun ‘polymath’ is a very appropriate way to describe this extraordinary woman,” Key said. “Among her many accomplishments, Olive Dennis graduated from Goucher College in Baltimore in 1908 with a Phi Beta Kappa key, became only the second woman to graduate from Cornell’s engineering program (in 1920) and finished at the top of her class, designed Baltimore & Ohio Railroad’s famous ‘Blue China’ and designed that railroad’s streamlined Cincinnatian.”
The announcement appeared in Railroad History, Fall-Winter 2012.