When Lelia Thompson Flagg, a 1960 graduate in civil engineering, arrived at Missouri S&T for the first time, there were no dorms for her to stay in. Instead, she stayed with a Black family south of campus while earning her degree.
Flagg was the first Black woman to graduate from Missouri S&T and was one of only 11 women during her freshman year in 1956. She excelled at math in high school and was encouraged by her teachers to study engineering.
After graduation, Flagg headed to California to work at the Bureau of Sanitary Engineering. Later, she returned to S&T and became assistant director of admissions until 1998.
Share This Story
Spark a Memory?
Share your story! Fill out the form below to share your fondest memory or anecdote of S&T. If you'd prefer not typing, you can also share by phone at 833-646-3715 (833-Miner150).
Mary (Hilton) and Mike McEvilly
Mary (Hilton) and Mike McEvilly met in August 1978 at a Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity party. As students, the two…
Leading a national lab
At Sandia National Laboratories, Joan Woodard, a mathematics graduate in 1973, was the executive vice president and deputy laboratories director…
Sandy (Junge) and Brian Klein
Sandy (Junge) and Brian Klein met in 1990 during lunch in the TJ Hall cafeteria. “Sandy needed a typewriter to…
Inventing the future at ‘the idea factory’
In the 1950s, AT&T Bell Labs was a hotbed of innovation, a place where engineers and theorists came together to…
John and Kristie (Capps) Gibson
After a basketball game in February 1973, John Gibson and a friend went to a party at TJ Hall where…
Fruit juice helps send children to school
Boonchai Songthumvat, MS EMgt’76, and his food scientist wife, Nuchanart, started Nuboon Co. in 1992 to manufacture fruit and vegetable…