David, Helen Robertson
- Object Type
- Oral history
- Object ID
- 14697
- Date
- May 7 2010
- Description
- Helen Robertson David (1923- ) was born in Montreal, Canada and grew up in Brooklyn. Her father moved to Canada from South Africa and her mother was born in Lithuania in 1890 and came to New York around 1902. David’s parents met in Montreal and moved to the U.S. in 1926, settling in Brooklyn. David attended P.S. 161, P.S. 241 in Crown Heights, Junior High 210, and graduated from Erasmus Hall High School in 1939 when she was 16 years old. She attended Brooklyn College as a science major and graduated in 1943. David worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in the Sound and Optics Laboratory. She left the Yard to pursue a career in teaching and obtained a Master’s Degree in education from Teacher’s College at Columbia University. David met her husband while attending Brooklyn College. She eventually taught at Valley Stream High School on Long Island for 29 years and moved to Arizona in 2005. Among the many topics David discusses is the work she did in the Sound and Optics Lab, memorable events at the yard such as construction of the USS Missouri, and the USS Bonhomme Richard, an explosion in the power station, and the D-Day Normandy invasion. She explains that people were not allowed to quit working in the Yard because it was wartime and in order to pursue her teaching career she had to get permission from the Commandant. She remembers smelling the chocolate factory in the neighborhood while working at the Yard. David discusses gender relations within the Yard and the Lab, telling one story about keeping milk in the Lab’s refrigerator; she and other women would label their milk as if it contained bacteria cultures to keep the men from drinking it. She also talks about her life after the Navy Yard. David is friends with two other interviewees: Eleanor Capson and Mimi (Mildred) Leipzig.
- Related Collection
- Brooklyn Navy Yard Oral History Project
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