In January 1954, Bernardine O'Sullivan, pictured here, was installed as the president of the Local F. Aero-Mechanics Union 751, the first women in the history of the union to hold that position in a local.

Bernardine O'Sullivan, a former elementary and high school teacher, started working at Boeing in 1942 as a rivet bucker, and by 1954 was a expert parts controller in Department 526 of Boeing's Plant No. 2. She served as acting president of the Local F. Aero-Mechanics Union 751 in 1953, when the former president left, and was elected by local members in 1954. Previously, she and other Boeing workers were the first to organize an industrial group of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women.

Caption information source: "Former Schoolteacher Keeps Busy as Head of Boeing Mechanics' Local," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 19, 1954, p. 12
Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.