116 Millennium - A Marquis Who’s Who Magazine SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING CATHERINE LOUISE DELANEY HUNGERFORD ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT, SENIOR TECHNICAL ANALYST (RETIRED) Citigroup Houston, TX Now retired, Catherine Louise Delaney Hungerford found success in two professional areas: music and information technology. While the fields might seem miles apart, her musical aptitude equipped her to excel in tech and build a fulfilling career that supported her children and enabled continuous learning and growth. Ms. Hungerford began playing the clarinet at just 9 years old. Yet, by the sixth grade, she was participating in her high school’s senior band. Pursuing music as a career, she received a Bachelor of Music in 1971 and a Master of Music in 1979, both from the University of Houston. For two years, she served as the assistant band director, and then for two years as the head band director at Stovall Junior High. However, Ms. Hungerford’s salary was insufficient to support herself and her two children, and the demands of a professional music career, including late-night concerts and rehearsals, did not align with her parental responsibilities. She needed a more stable job and a higher paycheck. She was pointed toward information technology by the oboist in her woodwind quintet, who worked at Great Southern Life Insurance and encouraged her to take an aptitude test. In doing so, she discovered numerous transferable skills, such as logic and pattern recognition. She was hired in 1980 as an entry-level systems programmer, kicking off a longstanding career in the field. While the primary goal of her work in information technology was to provide for her children, Ms. Hungerford thrived. She held systems programmer roles at St. Luke‛s Hospital and McCulloch Oil and Resources before joining Houston Lighting and Power Company in 1984. In 1992, she joined BMC Software as a software quality assurance engineer in research and development, and later as a manager and architect in quality assurance. Ms. Hungerford’s most notable IT achievement occurred during her 14-year tenure at BMC Software, when she automated the software testing process. Such testing was previously performed manually by quality assurance teams, a process that took time and resources. By automating the process, she saved significant
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