Death of Olivia Hooker in 2018-- Part 5: One of First Women in Coast Guard and a PH.D.

She was stationed in Boston and performed administrative duties before the SPARs program was disbanded in 1946.  She was discharged as a petty officer 2nd class, according to a Coast Guard report, then went on to complete her doctorate.

She became a senior clinical lecturer at Fordham in 1963 and retired from the university in 1985.

Thirty years later, the Coast Guard named a building on Staten Island after her, breaking a tradition of ship- and building-christening in honor only of those who have died.  The service said it was making an exception because of her "distinguished service to the Coast Guard and her wonderful efforts in serving and helping others."

Death of Olivia Hooker in 2018-- Part 4: Joined the Coast Guard in WW II As a SPAR

Later, during World War II, she was a member of Delta Sigma Theta and took part in her sorority's efforts to integrate the U.S. Navy, which had started accepting women.  She said, "They wrote back and said there was complication.  They wouldn't tell me what the complication was."

Instead, she enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in early 1945, three years after Congress passed a law approving the creation of the Coast Guard Women's Reserve to help fill jobs vacated by men who went abroad to fight in the war.

Hooker became one of the first women to join the Women's Reserve, known as the SPARS.