Mary Scranton

Mary Lowe Scranton (April 27, 1918 – December 26, 2015) was an American consultant, community advocate and academic trustee. She served as the First Lady of Pennsylvania from 1963 to 1967 during the administration of her husband, William Scranton, the 38th Governor of Pennsylvania and 1964 U.S. presidential candidate.^[1] She focused on housing and community affairs issues in Northeastern Pennsylvania after her tenure as Pennsylvania's First Lady.^[1]

Mary Scranton was the first woman to serve on the boards of trustees for both the University of Scranton and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).^[2][3][4] Scranton, who served on Caltech's board of trustees from 1975 to 1989, was placed in charge of the university's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a NASA facility.^[1] She defended the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and successfully secured federal funding for the laboratory against budget cuts by the Reagan administration during the 1980s.^[1] Jet Propulsion Laboratory remains an important component of the U.S. space program to the day, in large part due to Mary Scranton's defense of its programs during that era.^[1]