Myrtle Ernestine Fahsbender (January 12, 1907 – May 1, 2001) was an American lighting expert. She was director of home lighting at Westinghouse Electric Corporation, where she worked from 1936 until 1970.
Early life and education
Fahsbender was born in Chicago, the daughter of Ernest Fahsbender and Sophia Carlberg Fahsbender. Her father was a barber, born in Germany, and her mother was born in Sweden. She graduated from the University of Illinois in 1929,[1] with further studies at the Moser Business College in Chicago.[2] She was a member of Kappa Delta sorority.[3]
Career
Fahsbender began her career as a stenographer. By 1942, she was director of home lighting in the lamp division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation in New Jersey.[4] She retired from Westinhouse in 1970.[5]
Fahsbender gave talks and wrote articles about residential lighting, often aimed at women decorating or updating homes,[6] or at professional decorators and landscape designers.[7][8][9] For example, in 1939, she gave a lectures about the effects of blacklight on patterned fabrics.[10][11] During World War II, she presented ideas for home blackout procedures at the Chicago Lighting Institute, and to audiences of air raid wardens.[4][12] Also during the war, she wrote an instructional booklet with photographs, on repairing frayed electrical cords and changing fuses.[13] She studied domestic lighting fashions in six European countries in 1951,[14] and made a national lecture tour in 1956.[2]
