Y2, US Navy, Mavis Patricia Dean

Mavis Patricia Dean enlisted in the Navy Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) in 1944. ¹ Following training at the US Naval Training Schools in Bronx, New York, and Stillwater, Oklahoma, Dean was assigned to communications decoding and switchboard operations at Headquarters, Eastern Sea Frontier, New York, New York. ¹ She was honorably discharged in July of 1946 and awarded the American Theater and WWII Victory medals. ¹

Dean was born in Des Moines, Iowa on August 31, 1924, to Charlie Montgomery Dean and Esther Edstrom. She went to East High School in Des Moines and was on the student council ². She attended the American Institute of Business in Des Moines and received a degree in business. ¹

Dean moved to Albuquerque in 1948 to attend UNM where she met her husband Fred J. Wagoner. ¹ In 1951, she was enrolled in a university course to become a Red Cross-authorized instructor in the home care of the sick. ³ Shortly after receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in 1952, Dean went to work as an executive secretary in the engineering department of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project on Sandia Base. ^{1, 4} She left her career to raise a family that grew to include four children, six grandchildren.

In Dean’s later career, she taught business, literature, algebra, Latin, and English classes at Saint Pius X High School, where she also headed the astronomy club. Her love for astronomy continued throughout her life. ¹ Among her keepsakes is a personal response from the head of NASA’s Johnson Space Center to her application for any position requiring secretarial or communications skills that would also include the possibility of space travel. ¹ In a tribute to Dean, her family wrote, “Nothing was available at that time, but now the stars are all hers. Happy traveling Mom, we love you.” ¹