From key punch operator to technology mentor

In 1962, Rita Davis Lyell used her education in data processing to get a job as a key punch operator at Northwestern National Bank (today Wells Fargo). As a key punch operator, Rita played an important role in the bank’s first computer operations. She used a special machine to encode customer account information by creating holes in cards that were fed into computers to process.

At the time Rita started, punching cards was viewed as clerical work, and most workers in the field were women. Today, we recognize the vital role of this early generation of women in technology.

Rita came from a family of civil rights activists. Her father, W. Harry Davis Sr., was community organizer who served on the local school board for two decades including the period when the school system underwent desegregation. In 1971, he ran as the city’s first African American candidate for mayor. His courage and civic involvement led to a lasting legacy in Minnesota.

Rita continued a legacy of trailblazing in her banking career. She was the first full-time African American employee for Northwestern National Bank in Minneapolis. While becoming a technology manager, she also became a leader in an employee-led movement to drive change and make the bank more inclusive.

When she retired in 2007, she was honored for her influential role in shaping the bank’s first Diversity Council, started in 1995, and mentoring succeeding generations of employees as an inspiring role model.