Breaking a Barrier With Precision: Leah Moncure (September 07, 2026)
by Scott Sosebee
Sometimes it’s amazing what one remembers from bygone days, and when I began to look at material for this week’s topic one of those unique recollections percolated in my brain. Like I am sure many of you had, Fannin Elementary School in San Angelo every year had something we called “Career Day.” On that day—I think it was in the morning and I think I was in the fifth grade, which meant that this was 1972 (yes, I’m old)—instead of our usual studies our entire class decamped to the cafeteria and heard a succession of speakers tell us about what they did for a living. We had lawyers, policemen, bankers, and numerous others that day tell us all about what they did for a living. One thing that stood out for me today as I recalled that day was that we did not hear from any women telling us what they did, even though I know that most of the student’s mothers in our middle-class school had careers—including my own—and we had an almost all-female faculty at that school. But more significantly, another recollection stood out for me. We had a civil engineer, the father of a sixth-grader, as one of the presenters. After he delivered his talk, he asked if any of us wanted to “be an engineer when they grew up.” A few hands raised, all male except for one young girl and this man—for a reason I can’t imagine—chose to single her out, but not in a positive way. He said to her, “I’m sorry, but you might want to think about doing something else. I don’t know of any girls who become engineers.” She looked crestfallen, and while I have no idea if such an affect occurred, but I sure hope that one episode did not destroy her dream.
It was ironic that such an episode happened in 1972, as that was the year of the passing of a Texas icon, granted one that few people are aware of. Leah Moncure died in that year at the age of 67 in her hometown of Bastrop. Moncure had the great distinction of being the first female to ever be licensed as an engineer in the state of Texas. She worked for years for the Texas Highway Department (now TxDOT) and in the course of her career broke a number of barriers for women.
Leah Moncure was born in Bastrop in June 1904, the first (by fifteen minutes) of twin girls to Hattie Nuckols Moncure. Her father, Cassius Lee (C.L.), was the long-time Bastrop County surveyor and—like she would become—a licensed civil engineer. When Leah was only three-years-old doctors diagnosed her with a serious congenital heart defect. They told her parents that it was a grave deficiency and she would likely not survive childhood. That diagnosis became the first barrier that Leah Moncure cleared as while she had to certainly take precautions, she outlived her doctor’s prognosis. As a child, Leah accompanied her father on a number of his surveying jobs. She took not only great interest but delight in not only watching him but beginning to learn his trade. She also showed great aptitude, and by the time she was a teenager she could ably use his equipment, translate field notes, plat maps, and also—amazingly—she even began to draft her father’s projects.
She was an honor student in high school and after graduation matriculated at nearby Baylor University. Baylor, at that time, did not offer an engineering degree, but even if they did, like other Texas universities, they would not have allowed her to choose that as a major. So, Moncure decided to become a double major in math and education. That aptitude she had shown continued at Baylor and she graduated in 1925 with high honors. She was quickly hired to teach math at a Houston junior high school. However, teaching was not what Leah Moncure really wanted to do, so after only a year she applied for a position at Howe & Wise, an engineering consultant firm. Howe & Wise had just been awarded a large state contract to build county roads and desperately needed employees with drafting and surveying experience. Although reluctant to hire a woman, they could not deny her experience and their demand so they brought her onboard.
She performed ably for the three-year duration of the project, but when it ended so did her position with Howe & Wise. Undeterred, Moncure made two crucial decisions. One was that if she wanted to advance her career, she would need an engineering degree. The other was that she needed a job to pay for that schooling. Using her experience at Howe & Wise, she applied for and received a part-time job with the Texas Highway Department. At the same time, she enrolled at the University of Texas in their civil engineering department. Her schedule was hectic. She would work at THD and also go to classes, and also had to—periodically—take to bed rest because of her heart condition. She finally graduated in May 1937, and when Texas passed a law that required engineers to be licensed and certified in their field (action taken in response to the 1937 New London School explosion), Leah Moncure applied, passed, and was certified in 1938 as the first woman in Texas to become a registered professional engineer. She was not done with “firsts;” she became the first woman to be a Life Member of the National Society of Professional Engineers, and the also the first woman to be a member of the Texas Society of Professional Engineers.
Moncure continued to work for the Texas Highway Department after her graduation and certification. She was an instrumental part of the historic boom of Texas road-building in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. She worked on projects in Beaumont, Lufkin, and a number in Houston. She worked for the THD for thirty-two years, and then retired in 1964 as her life-long heart condition began to accelerate. The Texas Society of Professional Engineers established the Leah Moncure Memorial Scholarship in 1965 for female engineering students at UT. She passed away in 1972. Today, there is a Texas Historical Commission Historical Marker honoring her at her childhood home in Bastrop. I wish I had known about her career in 1972. Maybe it would have made a difference to my classmate on Career Day.
The East Texas Historical Association provides this column as a public service. Scott Sosebee the Executive Director of the Association and can be contacted at sosebeem@sfasu.edu or via www.easttexashistorical.org.