Viola S. Ergen, a longtime resident of Oak Ridge, peacefully passed at home with family on Tuesday, May 21.

Born Sept. 10, 1915, in Minneapolis, Minn., daughter to Otto and Anna Siebenthal, Viola began her early career by typing recipes for Betty Crocker. She went on to become the first woman to graduate with a BBA in accounting from the University of Minnesota in 1936. Viola then became senior accountant for the university and later worked as a statistician for the Gallup Poll in Princeton, N.J.

Viola enjoyed being a member of the Minneapolis Hiking Club, which is where she met her husband, Dr. William Krasny Ergen (deceased 1971), a physicist known internationally for his work in nuclear reactor safety, for his coining of the phrase “China Syndrome” in 1967, and for his tenure on the Nuclear Reactor Safety Board. In 1947, they settled in Oak Ridge, where they raised their five children. [Read more…]