Sheila Marie Evans Widnall is an American aerospace researcher and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She served as United States Secretary of the Air Force between 1993 and 1997, making her the first female Secretary of the Air Force. Widnall was the first woman to serve as Secretary of the Air Force. She is the first woman to lead an entire branch of the U.S. military in the Department of Defense. On 20 December 2013, Deborah Lee James became the second woman to become the Secretary of the Air Force. Widnall graduated from MIT with an S.B. in 1960, S.M. in 1961, and Sc.D. in 1964, all in Aeronautics. She was appointed as the Abby Rockefeller Mauz� Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1986 and joined the Engineering Systems Division, was Chair of the Faculty 1979?1981, and has served as MIT's Associate Provost from 1992?1993. In 1988 she was the President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. President of the United States Bill Clinton announced her nomination to be Secretary of the Air Force on the Fourth of July, 1993. 

July 13th, 1938 in Tacoma (Age 86)