June 16, 2009
A Female First
While probing the topic of invasive species for an article in Chesapeake Quarterly, I was struck by the diversity of people involved in this issue in some way. There are academics, biologists, engineers, and natural resource managers — people who grapple with invasive species day in and day out. Then there are those for whom invasive species become just one small part of their job. People like Jerome Brown and his inspection team from the U.S. Coast Guard, or Captain Escoto from the freighter, Tamoyo Maiden. And Kathy Metcalf from the shipping industry.
Whenever you speak with so many different people, you hear interesting stories — stories that can appear out of context, stories you want to pass on. Kathy Metcalf has one of those stories.
There’s not much decoration on the walls of Kathy Metcalf’s office at the Chamber of Shipping of America. To get to work, she takes the Amtrak train to Washington, D.C.’s Union Station from her home in Pennsylvania. Because of the long commute, she simply hasn’t bothered to schlep many personal belongings down in her years of working in Washington. Not even her college diploma – which becomes part of the story.
Metcalf graduated from high school in Dover, Delaware in 1972. The daughter of an Air Force officer, she dreamed of attending a United States Military Academy, particularly West Point. “I just thought it was the coolest thing in the world,” she says. A top student, she received nominations from her state senator, Pete du Pont, and applied for admittance to West Point as well as the Air Force and Naval Academies.
But there was one thing wrong with her application. She was not a “he.” The military academies all rejected Metcalf, sending her letters explaining that they could not accept her because she was female.
Though disappointed, Metcalf moved on and enrolled at the University of Delaware. In the fall of her sophomore year she was hanging out in her dorm room when someone came in and told her she had a call on the hall telephone. The caller’s identity shocked her.
It was Joe Biden, the newly minted senator from Delaware.
Biden had been reviewing his predecessor’s files. He said, “I understand you’re interested in going to one of the federal academies,” Metcalf recalls. “And I just wanted you to know that the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy is opening its doors to women next year.”
Getting past the fact that a U.S. Senator was calling her in her dorm was hard enough, Metcalf remembers. Realizing that this could be her opportunity to attend a military academy was even harder. It wasn’t West Point. But it was as close to her dream as she could get at the time. She told the Senator that she was definitely interested. Visiting the campus in Kings Point, NY, with her father helped seal the deal. She fell in love with the place.
When the Merchant Marine Academy formally accepted Metcalf, she became the first woman appointed to a federal academy “by about 2 hours and 13 minutes.” But who’s counting? The Academy called Senator Biden first. He held a press conference in his office in Wilmington, complete with television crews. Metcalf, who was a bit embarrassed by the hoopla, puts the experience in perspective. “I’m not anything special. It’s a good example that it’s better to be lucky than smart any day.”
Metcalf started the Academy with 16 other women; 8 of them graduated. After graduation, she launched into a career in the shipping business and ultimately earned her law degree and began working in Washington, D.C. on issues facing the shipping industry. Issues like combating invasive species.
Years after Senator Biden helped her earn an appointment to the Merchant Marine Academy, Metcalf re-introduced herself to him on one of her Amtrak train rides into D.C. Biden was a regular on the route from Wilmington to Washington, and Metcalf would see him occasionally. She told him the story of how he had shaped her life, and he said he remembered her.
But Metcalf hasn’t seen Biden on the train recently. She thinks she knows why.
“I hear he moved,” she deadpans.
Joking aside, she says she was excited for him to get the opportunity to be vice president. She knows a few things herself about seizing opportunities.
Posted by Jessica Smits on
June 16, 2009 at 2:44 pm
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