by Rachel Williams
University of West Georgia alumna Selwyn Edwards may be retired now, but her resume still commands respect.
Selwyn was born and raised in Hulett, Georgia. She entered West Georgia College at just 15, and she graduated at age 18 with a general degree. She went on to get a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. During her summer vacations as a student, she worked at Southwire and a furniture store. Southwire CEO Roy Richards lived on the same street as Selwyn’s parents. In 1958, after her graduation from UGA, Selwyn started her career at Proctor and Gamble as a sales administrator.
After Selwyn married her husband, fellow UWG alumni John Edwards, the newlyweds spent a few years moving around the U.S. for John’s military career. When he was initially stationed in Huntsville, Alabama, Selwyn worked as a mathematician for Brown Engineering. Her work involved “reducing data for rockets and surveillance.” After John was sent to Hawaii, Selwyn became an international banker at the Bank of Hawaii. In 1961, the couple moved back to Huntsville, and Selwyn returned to Brown Engineering.
The Edwards both made career changes in 1965, when John decided to study electrical engineering at the University of Alabama and Selwyn became a research assistant. They both joined Harris Corporation in Melbourne, Florida, in 1968. Their work there dealt with classified surveillance images taken and dropped by satellites and retrieved by airplanes.
In 1971, Selwyn began her 30-year career in human resources. She became the first female director of human resources at Harris as well as the first female in the government sector.
John died in September 2010. When Selwyn retired, she moved to Denver to be close to one of her two daughters as well as her grandchildren.
