Choosing to work with numbers because of its simplicity and her enjoyment of it, Doris Keefe Lidtke, PhD, found transitioning into her profession a natural choice. Retired since 2009, she began her professional career as a programmer analyst at Shell Development Co. in Emeryville, California, in 1955, remaining in this role for four years before transferring to the University of California Berkeley from 1960 to 1962. She then switched to education, serving as an assistant professor at Lansing Community College from 1963 to 1968, an education specialist at Johns Hopkins University in 1968 and an assistant professor of computer science at Towson University from 1968 to 1980. The associate program manager at the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 1984 to 1985, as well as a senior member and technical staff member at the Software Productivity Consortium from 1987 to 1988, she continued to serve Towson University as an associate professor from 1980 to 1990 and professor from 1990 to 2002. During this time, she also served the NSF as program director from 1992 to 1993 and ABET as an adjunct accreditation director for computing from 1999 to 2009. Dr. Lidtke is currently recognized as a professor emerita. She additionally served the Computing Sciences Accreditation Board as vice president from 1993 to 1995 and president from 1995 to 1997.
Throughout her career, Dr. Lidtke has taught programming languages, software engineering, social and ethical issues, and computer science education. Prior to the start of her career, she pursued a formal education at the University of Oregon, earning a Bachelor of Science in 1952. She then attended Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she received a Master of Education, cum laude, in 1974. Dr. Lidtke later returned to her alma mater to attain a PhD in computer education in 1979, and is also certified in mathematics and economics.
What Dr. Lidtke that she is most proud of is starting a computer and information sciences program at Towson University; she was the first person hired to it and now there are 40 people employed. They didn’t have a degree program at that time, but they went under a special degree arrangement through which the mathematics department decided to give them their own department in 1983. Today, there are three tracks, a bachelor’s program, a master’s program and a doctoral program. Furthermore, it is the largest department with 40 faculty members. Outside of her primary trade, Dr. Lidtke maintains involvement with numerous organizations related to her field. Most recently, from 994 to 1998, she served ACM, Inc., as chairman and a council member.
The recipient of the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as a Marquis Who’s Who Top Professional, Dr. Lidtke has received myriad accolades throughout her career. ACM, Inc., awarded her with its Recognition Service Award in 1978, 1983, from 1985 to 1986 and from 1990 to 1991, as well as its Distinguished Service Award in 1995. She was also honored by the IEEE Computer Society with the Golden Core Award and two Outstanding Contribution Awards in 1986 and 1992. Her other honors include being named Outstanding Educator by the Association of Education Data Systems in 1986, two Outstanding Service Awards from SIGCAS, the Distinguished Alumna Award from the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association in 2011, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at Towson University in 2014, among others. Moreover, Dr. Lidtke was selected for inclusion in many editions of Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Education, Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, and Who’s Who in the East.