Dr. Margaret Carver (S’43), a pioneering female physician
One in a series of occasional profiles showcasing highly accomplished MCS alumni and their past or current interactions with Carnegie Mellon
Margaret Carver, M.D., can’t go anywhere in her small town without running into someone she knows. Actually, Dr. Carver can’t even go to the grocery store without catching up with one of the some 10,000 babies she has delivered during her 40-year career as an obstetrician and gynecologist in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Carver, a 1943 graduate of Margaret Morrison Carnegie College, knew at a young age that she wanted to be a doctor. As a little girl, Dr. Carver would accompany her physician uncle in his green Model A Ford while he made house calls. From that point on, she knew that a career in medicine was her dream.
Maggie Murph
Dr. Carver applied to Margaret Morrison Carnegie College (MMCC) after reading a description of the general science program, which was listed as preparatory for a career in medicine. At that time, MMCC was an all-women’s school and one of the four original colleges in the Carnegie Institute of Technology, which eventually became Carnegie Mellon University in 1967.
“I received an excellent education from Carnegie Mellon. Almost everyone had to take extra courses to get into medical school, but I didn’t have to take anything. And I was very fortunate to receive the financial help that made that education possible,” said Dr. Carver. She received a Brashear scholarship and several other scholarships that allowed her to complete her general science degree free of debt.
Women and World War II
When Dr. Carver graduated from Carnegie Tech in 1943, the United States was in the thick of World War II. Because the male workforce was limited, many companies began recruiting women. Union Carbide Corporation recruited Dr. Carver, and she went to work in a research lab at Linde Air Corporation, a subsidiary of Union Carbide. When her husband, a navigator in the Air Force, was sent to Texas for training, Dr. Carver went with him and took a job at Sunoco doing chemical research.
“When the war ended, I started thinking about medical school again, but my husband didn’t think women should be doctors. So we divorced amicably, and I came back to Pittsburgh to apply to medical schools. I was accepted to the University of Pittsburgh medical school, and I started there in 1946. My medical school class had a lot of older people in it because the boys were coming back from the war, but there were also seven girls in my class, which was a lot at that time. Today, more than half of medical students are women.”
Dr. Carver graduated from the University of Pittsburgh medical school in 1950. Rather than join an existing practice as doctors do today, Dr. Carver and her classmates could open their own small practices in locations of their choice. And that’s what she did.
Practicing Medicine in a Small Town
“One of my classmates, Dr. Gertrude Blumenschein, and I opened a general practice in Uniontown. I can still remember what I felt like when I saw my sign on the front porch. It was fun to practice medicine in those days. It was very rewarding. There was a niche for us in Uniontown. We saw female patients who hadn’t seen a doctor since the last female physician practiced in Uniontown 20 years earlier,” said Dr. Carver.
Dr. Carver practiced general medicine in Uniontown for seven years, during which time she delivered numerous babies but had to turn to general surgeons when C-sections were needed. There were no board-certified obstetricians—doctors trained to care for all phases of obstetrics. Dr. Carver wanted to provide this full set of services to her maternity patients.
“I came to realize that I wanted to be an obstetrician, so I went to Buffalo for three years for training in obstetrics and gynecology.”
Dr. Carver practiced medicine as an obstetrician and gynecologist until her retirement in 1997. And while she performed the routine duties required of an obstetrician, her training in surgery came in handy in the most unlikely of circumstances. While she was enjoying a cruise vacation in 1969, a medical emergency occurred on board the ship. A 12-year-old boy needed an appendectomy immediately, and she was the only person on board who could perform the procedure. Assisted by nurses and a dentist, who accepted the role of anesthesiologist, Dr. Carver removed the boy’s ruptured appendix successfully. The emergency surgery was the talk of the boat, and the surgical team received a standing ovation when they appeared for dinner in their scrubs instead of the usual dinner attire. She maintained a relationship with the young boy for many years.
Staying Connected
While running her own practice, Dr. Carver also played a key role in setting up Uniontown’s first mental health clinic and family planning clinic. Now that she has retired, she has stayed connected to the hospital and to her patients. Dr. Carver volunteers at the Uniontown Hospital’s library, where she handles incoming requests from medical schools and hospitals looking for specific journals. She also sits on the boards of the Blind Association and the Hospital Foundation. She is a member of Soroptimist, an international service club that means “best for women.” The Soroptimists helped to renovate a women’s shelter in the Uniontown area, as well as to provide resources for running the shelter.
Dr. Carver not only is devoted to helping her neighbors in the small community of Uniontown, but she also has maintained close ties to Carnegie Mellon. She is a member of the Andrew Carnegie Society and she has set up a scholarship fund that she continues to support.
“This is my way of repaying Carnegie Mellon for both an excellent education and the financial help that made my education possible.”
Amy Pavlak
April 8, 2005
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