Sally H Connolly

Sally H. Connolly was born on January 12, 1945 in Malone, NY. Sally was an excellent student and excelled in Mathematics and Science. She graduated from Dannemora High School, in Dannemora, NY as the Valedictorian and earned a full scholarship to St. Rose College in Albany, NY. Sally majored in Mathematics and loved the idea that there was always one answer. She was scouted by IBM and started working there as a computer programmer, then she became a first-line manager and eventually a well-respected project manager in charge of significant projects with many employees.

After 30 plus years at IBM, Sally retired and worked as a project manager for the Corporate office of America’s Favorite Chicken, which owns Church’s, Seattle’s Best Coffee and Popeyes as well as Johnson and Johnson. After finally retiring for good, she helped hundreds of people’s complete their taxes every year for free through her Senior Center. Sally was a trailblazer who broke through the glass ceiling at numerous IBM locations from the 1960’s through the 1990’s and was actually the first female manager at one plant. She loved finding patterns, problem-solving, and numbers in general. Her family is proud of all her accomplishments and knows that as a scholarship recipient herself, Sally would haves loved it if her legacy included helping other women succeed in STEM.