Get Out Into The Real World: The Story Of Marjorie L. Hart ’51

By Susan Daniel, Fred H. Rhodes Professor of Chemical Engineering. This article originally appeared in the December 2023 issue of Olin Hall News.

By eighth grade, Marjorie Hart, née Leigh, knew she wanted to be an engineer. She was drawn to mechanics, but it was the early 1940s, and she understood that girls were expected to focus on other things — like fabrics and food. Undeterred, she set her sights on chemical engineering.

When Marjorie applied to Cornell University, she was first admitted to the College of Arts and Sciences. Cornell Engineering was full of veterans on the GI bill. If she wanted to transfer in, she had to prove herself. On a fateful December day in 1946, she met with Fred "Dusty" Rhodes, the founding director of what is now the Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

"So you want to be an engineer?" Dusty asked. "Do you drink beer?"

"No," said Marjorie, "but I can learn!"

Marjorie was admitted to the chemical engineering class of 1951.

More than 70 years later, I had the opportunity to speak with Marjorie at her home in New York City about how her time at Cornell Engineering transformed her life and career.

Marjorie remembered Dusty as a valued mentor and a teacher with exacting standards and a tireless work ethic. He ran the unit operations lab, for which students would have to write weekly reports by hand. A stickler for succinct and precise communication, Dusty would often rewrite these reports to show his pupils how it was properly done. But these training wheels would come off as the students improved — just in time for them to find their first jobs.

Dusty was confident in his students’ abilities and their preparedness for realworld work, and he was known for pulling whatever strings he could to secure them employment. He personally called contacts at Esso, now known as ExxonMobil, to help Marjorie land her first job.

In the summer of 1952, Marjorie started at Esso Research and Engineering, Co. working on catalytic reforming in the process division. After five years in that division as an engineer, she left for New York University to study for an MBA. When she returned to Esso, now in the Corporate Planning Department, her first assignment was to study whether the company should go back into the bottled gas business after WWll. Marjorie became Esso’s first woman executive to be sent overseas, where she helped determine that bottled gas could be a viable business in Japan.

Esso’s Japanese affiliate requested that Marjorie remain in the country as they prepared to expand into bottled gas. Years later, Marjorie learned that this request prompted a lengthy and heated discussion in the Esso board room, where her male colleagues expressed doubt that a woman could handle such an assignment. But Marjorie didn’t have any doubts – she wanted to experience the real world. She took the assignment.

Marjorie has fond memories of her successful two-and-a-half-year stint in Japan. "The Japanese included me in everything, even the trips to the bars," she said. "It was a good thing I learned how to drink beer at Cornell!"

When she left Japan for good, the entire pier was filled with company employees who had come to see her off. To this day, she remains in touch with friends she made during her time there, which did not include any of the pitfalls the men in the Esso board room had imagined. It was also in Japan that she met Gurnee Hart, a friend of a friend, who was on holiday in Japan on a motorcycle tour.

Marjorie’s next professional stop was the London office. While in the United Kingdom, she met up with Gurnee again, and not long afterwards they were married and moved to Los Angeles. Then they were soon transferred to New York, where Gurnee joined the parent company of his investment firm and Marjorie rejoined Esso, eventually joining the Natural Gas Department. Marjorie retired in the late 1980s after years spent analyzing market trends and capital investment proposals for an emerging and growing market.

"I loved hearing the 15-minute pitches from eager and determined women trying to get their ideas off the page and into the real world. About 1 in 20 companies made it, but you have to take risks."

Always looking for new experiences and new ways to make her mark, Marjorie found a second career as an independent consultant. She conducted strategic planning and market research on emissions control technologies for power plants and diesel engines. She also spent time consulting for natural gas utilities in the Northeast and on environmental issues.

As a woman entrepreneur, she saw there were few women starting and running their own companies. So, she joined Golden Seeds, a group of angel investors who invested in women-led startups. "I loved hearing the 15-minute pitches from eager and determined women trying to get their ideas off the page and into the real world," Marjorie said. "About 1 in 20 companies made it, but you have to take risks."

"Women have great ideas and can contribute to technologies that will impact our world for the better, Helping them recognize they can do it, and equipping them with the skills to be successful entrepreneurs, is something I am proud to see Cornell do."

Marjorie expressed enthusiasm for the investment in entrepreneurship happening at Cornell Engineering, especially the support for young women entrepreneurs. "Women have great ideas and can contribute to technologies that will impact our world for the better," she said. "Helping them recognize they can do it, and equipping them with the skills to be successful entrepreneurs, is something I am proud to see Cornell do."

Marjorie’s own service-mindedness was cultivated at Cornell during her time as president of her sorority, Alpha Phi. In addition to encouraging and empowering others to get out and experience the world as she did, Marjorie has invested much of her time into making sure that the world is preserved for future generations. Deeply committed to land conservation and the environment, she has served as the Chair of the Board of Directors of Scenic Hudson, Inc.; on the Governor’s Advisory Committee for Rivers and Estuaries Center on the Hudson; as the Vice Chair and treasurer of the Seventh Regiment Armory Conservancy, Inc.; as a board member of the New York League of Conservation Voters; and as a member of the National Council of the Land Trust Alliance.

Marjorie has been a lifelong friend to Cornell, and specifically the Smith School. She served on the School’s Advisory Council from 1981 to 1986 and later on the Engineering College Council for several years. She is a lifetime member of the Cornell University Council and served as the Council’s vice-chair from 1979 to 1982 and as chair in 1986-87. She also served on the Cornell Board of Trustees as an alumni-elected member from 1979 to 1985. In October 1996, she was named a Cornell University Presidential Councilor. Marjorie has served on her Class Council and as her class Annual Fund Representative.

In 1997, Marjorie and Gurnee endowed a professorship in her name, the Marjorie L. Hart Professor of Engineering. Marjorie said at the time, "Although it has generally seemed to me that the chairs should be named for leaders of industry or academe, perhaps it will provide encouragement for women and minority participants in engineering education and practice to know that it has been possible for a woman graduate to complete a long and rewarding professional career and be able to endow a chair."

"Marjorie was a trailblazer in chemical engineering, setting a powerful example for many to follow."

Professor Tobias Hanrath currently holds the professorship. Tobias’s research is focused on green energy technologies and honors Marjorie’s commitment to protecting the environment, her positive impact on society and her love for engineering innovation in energy.

"Marjorie was a trailblazer in chemical engineering, setting a powerful example for many to follow," Tobias said. "I see her life’s work as a vivid example of the Japanese concept of ‘ikigai,’ a philosophy that unifies four key elements: passion for what you love, skill in what you excel at, societal contributions through impactful work and professional recognition. Inspired by her, I mentor my students holistically, encouraging them to apply their engineering education to societal challenges in energy and sustainability."

Marjorie agrees. "I enjoy hearing about Tobias’s pioneering work and his efforts to translate those innovations into the real world," she said. "That he focuses so strongly on bringing his students along in that process is something I am proud of — and something I know Dusty would appreciate, too."