Obituary of Margaret Mary Donnelly

Mary Donnelly, age 92, of Clifton, died peacefully on Sunday, November 24th at St. Joseph's Home for the Elderly in Totowa, NJ. Born in Paterson, NJ, to James and Margaret (Donohue) Donnelly in 1921, she attended St. John's Grammar and High School. After two years at Paterson State Teachers College majoring in mathematics, she transferred to Fordham University, Bronx, NY where she received her Bachelor of Science degree. On that occasion she won a fellowship for her Masters Degree which she received with honors a year later. She worked for two years at the Western Electric Company in developmental research, equipment standardization and product testing before returning to Fordham to continue her education. Mary pursued her studies and research for her doctorate majoring in physics under the guidance of Dr. Victor Hess, Nobel Prize winner in 1934 for Physics. Dr. Donnelly holds the distinction of being the first woman in the US to receive a Doctorate of Physics (Cosmic Ray) from Fordham and was one of the few women in the country to be so honored in 1950. Mary was a member of the American Physical Society and engaged in experimental research, having published her findings in various publications including the Edinburgh Review in Scotland. Dr. Donnelly began her working career in the Aeronautical Division of Curtiss-Wright where she was involved with ram jet missile performance and trajectory analysis. Two years later she moved to the C-W Research and Development Division doing neutron analysis and evaluation of nuclear reactor critical requirements. This classified project work took her to the Los Alamos Scientific Labs in New Mexico and the Holifield National Lab, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Mary joined AT&T Bell Labs in 1957 at the Radiation Physics Research facility in Whippany, NJ. initially working on Lunar orbits. This led to her involvement in planning the orbit of Telstar, the first communications satellite, specifically by developing tools for neutron transport theory and for shielding the components of this satellite as it passed through earth's Van Allen Radiation Belt. Telstar launched in July, 1962 and successfully relayed through space the first television pictures, telephone calls, fax images and provided the first live transatlantic television feed. During the 1960's Dr. Donnelly also taught Physics at Hunter College and published four papers on neutron physics. In the 1970's Mary focused more on computer simulation and statistical software languages, developed the statistical library for APL and formed the APL Users Group at Bell Labs. She also developed, trained instructors and taught related courses. Dr. Donnelly combined this work with earlier empirical studies by Joseph Juran and Edward Deming, pioneers in Software Quality and Reliability. During the 1980's Mary authored the first Software Improvement Workshop for AT&T Bell Labs with emphasis on software requirements, inspection and design documentation. She also developed a course on Bell Labs new "S" language, and developed numerous UNIX courses on Graphical Data Analysis, Quality Control and Training. After her retirement from Bell Labs she joined the Institute For Zero Defect Software in 1989 as a Senior Member of the Technical Staff where she authored a course on Software Reliability Engineering Applications as well as co-authoring many related articles and handbooks. Mary developed and conducted workshops on Best Practices for Software Reliability Engineering and Measurement, participating in many industry conferences in the US and abroad. In 1993 Mary became a software reliability consultant. Meeting Mary socially and at family affairs you would not suspect that she had this extensive scientific knowledge and technical background. With extended family living in many parts of the world, Mary was the family touchstone. She was Cousin Mary who kept in touch with all of us and spread the news, happy or sad. Although having traveled extensively on her own for business and pleasure, as a woman of faith she often accompanied her brother on church sponsored pilgrimages to Fatima, Lourdes, Rome, Jerusalem, Medjugorie and Canada. After her second retirement, Mary spent many years doing volunteer work in the office of the St. Joseph's Home for the Elderly in Totowa, NJ. And, when Mary's health failed she received loving care from the Sisters and staff of St. Joseph's Home. Mary was pre-deceased by her brother James in 1997. She is survived by many cousins throughout the US and in Ireland, England, Canada, Australia and Monte Carlo. Visitation will be held on Friday from 4-8pm at St. Joseph's Home for the Elderly, Little Sisters of the Poor, 140 Shepherds Lane, Totowa, NJ. A funeral Mass will be offered on Saturday at 10am at St. Joseph's Home. Burial will follow at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Totowa.