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Pioneering Women
Trail-blazing females helped shape Connecticut's commercial landscape
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Business New Haven
4/1/2002
By: Priscilla Searles
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Florence S. Wald
The year was 1974. The place was Branford - site of the first hospice in the state and nation. Much of the credit goes to Florence S. Wald, who envisioned the need to optimize the quality of life for the terminally ill.
Born in Scarsdale, N.Y., Wald was graduated from Mount Holyoke College and later earned a master's of science and master's of nursing degrees from Yale University as well as an honorary doctor of medical sciences. She began her nursing career as a staff nurse with the New York Visiting Nurse Service. In 1957 she gained employment as an assistant professor of psychiatric nursing at the Yale School of Nursing and in 1959 was appointed dean and associate professor. She later worked as a research associate and clinical associate professor.
A world-renowned leader in nursing research, Wald while serving as Yale nursing-school dean devised and implemented numerous reforms in educational programs, guiding the school to a new definition of nursing as a scholarly clinical discipline.
In the late 1960s Wald traveled to London to study the care given at Saint Christopher's Hospice. When she returned home she implemented a feasibility study to assess the need for a hospice in Connecticut. The realization that the terminally ill have unique needs led Wald to develop a hospice model that today is mirrored across the U.S. and abroad. Now in her 80s, she remains committed to expanding compassionate care of the dying by bringing hospice care to prison settings.
Last year Wald was honored by the American Academy of Nursing by being designated a “living legend.” The recipient of numerous awards, she is a member of the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame.
Beatrice Fox Auerbach
An outstanding businessperson, Beatrice Fox Auerbach made G. Fox & Co. into one of the country's leading department stores.
Auerbach was born in Hartford of well-to-do parents whose own parents each had established dry-goods stores. Gerson Fox founded his store in Hartford around 1845. Following the death of her grandfather, her father, Moses Fox, became president of the Hartford store. Beatrice and her husband, George Auerbach, became involved in the business following a devastating fire that destroyed G. Fox & Co. in 1917.
Beatrice's involvement in the store began in 1927 following the death of her husband. Working part-time in the beginning, she became increasingly involved in the management of the business when her father's health began to fail. She became president of the store in 1938 following the Moses Fax' death.
Under Auerbach's leadership G. Fox began to grow in leaps and bounds, becoming the largest privately owned store in the country. Auerbach was one of the first employers to institute labor reforms for her staff, offering a five-day week, retirement plans, medical, non-profit lunch facilities and interest-free loans for employees during times of need. She started free delivery service, a toll-free telephone order department and fully automated billing.
Recognized as one of the best merchandisers in the business, her techniques were studied in colleges across the country. Auerbach also established the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation to help finance educational and civic activities. She sold her privately owned G. Fox stock in 1965 for $40 million in publicly held shares of the May Department Stores Co. She passed away in 1968.
Auerbach is a member of the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame.
Constance Galley
Connie Galley was named president and CEO of Mercator Software when it was founded as TSI International Software Ltd. in 1985. Under her leadership, the company, which changed its name to Mercator Software in early 2000, pioneered the market for software to integrate e-business transactions and applications through its Mercator Integration Broker product line.
With 25 years of experience in the computer software industry, including positions at IBM and Dun & Bradstreet, Galley, a pioneer and leader in the development of business-to-business and application-to-application integration software, has witnessed and participated in trends in business computing from the days of mainframes and dumb terminals to the explosion in e-business.
A graduate of Duke University with a degree in chemistry, Galley, after beginning her career on the technical side of IBM's field organization, moved to a software company that was acquired by Dun & Bradstreet in the early 1980s. From there her history followed that of D&B's software enterprise until TSI was spun off as a separate company.
A director of Mercator and recently retired CEO, Galley is chairman of the state's software/IT cluster advisory board. In addition she is vice-chair of the Governor's Council on Economic Competitiveness & Technology. She is also chairman of the software division of ITAA an ITAA director.
What prepared Galley for the rigors of corporate management? In a 1999 interview with BNH, she explained, “Being at home with the kids for six years,” She explained that one “develops a maturity that little else can achieve” and that “one learns to be flexible” in such a setting.
Galley defines herself more as entrepreneur than corporate in-fighter. She says she “looked at the skills and assets” that she had in her company and what could be “reasonably built upon.” Then she also looked at the market to determine the software that would provide high-growth potential.
Constance Baker Motley
Born in New Haven, Constance Baker Motley was the daughter of West Indian immigrants from the Caribbean island of Navis. Motley began her career as an interior decorator, later deciding to enter law when she finished school.
To help earn money for college she took a job as a domestic, later accepting a position with the New Haven branch of the National Youth Administration. Clarence Blakeslee, a white contractor who built the Dixwell Community House, offered to pay for Motley's college education after hearing a speech she gave at the community house.
Motley started her college career at Fisk University In Nashville. Tenn., later transferring to the New York University's Washington Square College. She continued her studies at Columbia Law School. There she met Thurgood Marshall, who offered her a job as a law clerk in the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund's New York office. After earning her degree she became a full-fledged member of the legal staff. In 1966 President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed her a U.S. district judge, making her the first female African-American to be appointed to a federal judgeship. As U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York, the largest federal trial court in the nation, she was also the highest-paid African-American female in government. She was made chief judge in 1982 and senior judge four years later.
Motley was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993 and is also a member of the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame.
Betty C. Tianti
Firsts have been an important facet of Betty C. Tianti's life.
Born and raised in Plainfield, she moved to Danielson following her marriage. She began her career in 1956 when she went to work at the American Thread Co. in Willimantic as a machine operator. Tianti wasted no time joining the Textile Workers' Union of America. Within a few months of joining the company she was promoted to machine fixer, the first female to hold that position. She also was elected union steward. Within two years she was secretary-treasurer of Local 460 and several years later was elected union president.
In 1967, she left American Thread to become the first female deputy director of the union's Committee on Political Education (COPE). She returned to Connecticut three years later to become the first woman agent of the state's Board of Labor Relations. In 1974 she became state director of COPE and was later elected the first woman secretary-treasurer of the Connecticut AFL/CIO Federation.
Tianti also served on a number of state commissions, including the Governor's Committee on the Status of Women (1973) and the Committee on Objective Job Evaluations and Pay Equity (1986 - 87). Tianti was elected the nation's first woman president of a state AFL/CIO federation in 1985 when she became president of the Connecticut AFL/CIO. She held that position until 1988, when she was named the first woman commissioner of labor. Tianti, who passed away in 1994, is also a member of the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame.
Sr. Anne Virginie
A Waterbury native, Anne Virginie was an elementary school teacher before joining the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, a New Jersey-based religious community. She attended Post College in Waterbury, earned her undergraduate degree in business administration from the College of St. Elizabeth and a master's degree in hospital administration from St. Louis University.
Before being elected provincial superior of the northern province of the Sisters of Charity, Virginie held various administrative positions in Morristown and Passaic, N.J.
It was her role as provincial superior for the Sisters of Charity that brought her to Saint Raphael's, becoming a trustee of the Hospital of Saint Raphael in 1967. In 1973 she was appointed administrator of Saint Raphael's. In 1886, following the formation of the parent Saint Raphael Healthcare System, she became its president. In this role, she served on all boards within the system, including the Saint Raphael Foundation. In 1999 became vice chairperson of the system board, in addition to her role as president of the foundation.
When Virginie took over the helm of one of the state's largest hospitals and health-care programs she recruited an administrative team to guide the hospital following a $37 million overhaul, spearheading an aggressive campaign to improve the hospital's technical and intellectual reputation. Retiring in 2001, Virginie has been the heart and sole of Saint Raphael's. Committed to the community and serving on numerous boards, her involvement spans local, regional and state civic, business and professional organizations. She has been honored by numerous organizations, one of the most recent being the New Haven Colony Historical Society's Seal of the City Award, presented to her last year.
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