Civil Engineering Database

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Reece, Marilyn Jorgenson; ASCE Life Member

(1926-2004)

Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers 2004, pg. 817

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Document type: Memoir

Abstract: Marilyn Jorgenson Reece was born Marilyn Jorgenson in Kenmare, North Dakota on

September 8, 1926 to parents of Danish ancestry, Virgil and Marion Jorgenson. An excellent

student, she graduated Salutatorian from Shakopee High School in Minnesota in 1944 and

then went to the University of Minnesota to study civil engineering, graduating with a BS

degree in 1948.

After graduation she moved to California to work for the State Division of Highways (later

renamed the California Department of Transportation, or CalTrans) in Los Angeles, and spent

her entire working career with that agency. In 1954 she became the state.s first female

Registered Civil Engineer. She achieved her greatest public recognition for the design of the

interchange of the I-10 and I-405 (Santa Monica and San Diego) Freeways in Los Angeles, for

which she was honored with the Governor.s Design Excellence Award in 1962. Shortly

thereafter she became the Division of Highway.s first female resident engineer for construction

projects. Her career spanned 35 years and included being resident engineer for construction of

the I-210 Freeway through Sunland in 1975, which at $40 million was the largest construction

contract that CalTrans had ever awarded. During Women.s History Month in 1983, the year of

her retirement, she was honored by the Los Angeles City Council for making significant

contributions to the City. The freeway interchange that she designed has been praised as a

.work of art, both as a pattern on the map, as a monument against the sky, and as a kinetic

experience as one sweeps through it..

In 1957 she married Alvin Reece, a civil engineering graduate of the University of Colorado

who also worked for the then Division of Highways in Los Angeles. They had two daughters,

Kirsten Reece Stahl and Anne Reece Bartolotti, but Mrs. Reece always returned to work after

maternity leave. Her older daughter Kirsten followed in her mother.s footsteps and also

became a Registered Civil Engineer in California, and is a Senior Engineer for CalTrans. Her

younger daughter Anne works for Los Angeles County in information technology.

In 1957 she married Alvin Reece, a civil engineering graduate of the University of Colorado

who also worked for the then Division of Highways in Los Angeles. They had two daughters,

Kirsten Reece Stahl and Anne Reece Bartolotti, but Mrs. Reece always returned to work after

maternity leave. Her older daughter Kirsten followed in her mother.s footsteps and also

became a Registered Civil Engineer in California, and is a Senior Engineer for CalTrans. Her

younger daughter Anne works for Los Angeles County in information technology.

Marilyn Reece died in her home in Hacienda Heights after a long illness on May 15, 2004. A

memorial service held on June 27, 2004 was attended by hundreds of family and friends. She

is survived by her husband, Alvin, her two daughters Kirsten and Anne, her two grandchildren,

and a sister, Shirley Peterson of Victorville.