Irene E. Ryan

Irene Esther Ryan was a geologist, aviator, and legislator during Alaskas history as both a United States territory and as a U.S. state. She was a member of the Alaska Territorial House of Representatives and of the Alaska State Senate. She was instrumental in the creation of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which helped insure state revenue from oil and gas exploration done by outside entities. Ryan was involved with the creation of the Anchorage International Airport. She was the first female pilot to solo in the Territory of Alaska, and the first female to earn a geology degree from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Ryan was inducted into the Alaska Womens Hall of Fame in 2011.

Irene Esther Irvine was born in Boston, Massachusetts on September 10, 1909. Her parents were Leonard Laukki Irvine and Esther Neiminen Irvine. While working in Texas, she heard stories about Alaska from an aviator uncle based in the territory. At age twentytwo, she relocated to Anchorage. She began flying lessons at Merrill Field east of Anchorage. On June 23, 1932, she was certified as the first female aviator in the territory to solo. She briefly left Alaska to study at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in geology, the first woman to do so at that institution. On February 19, 1938, she married fellow student John Edward Pat Ryan. In February 1941, she gave birth to their first child Marcella. A month later, the couple relocated back to Alaska, where the couples other daughter Patricia was born.

Source: Wikipedia