Dolores Harrington holds an honored title in AGA history
From 1945 to 1993, Dolores Harrington devoted her time and talents to the American Gas Association, starting out in the secretarial pool and rising to becoming the association’s first female staff vice president.
“I call myself the Pearl Mesta of AGA ... the arranger of all things,” she quipped in a 75th anniversary article that appeared in American Gas Monthly in July 1993.
Harrington began working during World War II, when she said there were “hardly any men around,” but by the time the men returned to the workforce, Harrington had cemented her place as a valuable asset.
Granted, her early days were spent gophering for the association officers, but soon she was tapped to be an assistant to advertising executive Norval Jennings, who became her mentor. She flourished in the role, traveling to trade shows and networking with other industry professionals.
In the early 1960s, Harrington took charge of all of AGA’s exhibits at other organization trade shows. She was nervous to give her first speech in 1962, titled “Kitchens—Confusion or Serenity?” In 1970, she planned AGA’s annual meeting for the first time.
When AGA’s headquarters moved from New York to Arlington, Virginia, that same year, just 32 staffers out of about 170 went along—Harrington among them. With her, she brought her “hurried New York walk,” according to the anniversary article.
A July 1985 Washington Post story carried the news that “For the first time in 57 years, the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives has elected a woman as its chairman.”
Harrington, by then a staff vice president of meeting and training services at AGA, was the first woman to chair GWSAE’s Washington Association Research Foundation. In that role, she was responsible for a newly published book titled Washington Embassies: A Guide for the Private Sector, the Post noted.
Harrington, who passed away in 2005, credited “changes in attitude toward women executives” with paving the way for her success. But it seems she probably wasn’t giving herself enough credit for the many talents she possessed that earned her respect and advancement, regardless of her gender.