IEEE Phoenix Section History

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Chronology 

Announcement of Arizona Section in the 1941 Report of the Board of Directors of the AIEE.

The Phoenix Section started operations in 1941. Its "birthday" is March 22 (see IEEE Geographic Unit Organizing Document - Phoenix). At that time IEEE was known as the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) and the Phoenix Section referred to as Arizona Section. On January 10, 1951, the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) also established a Phoenix Section (see IRE Phoenix Section Formation Letter). AIEE and IRE merged in 1963 to form the IEEE.

The first Phoenix Section Chair was Ben Ferguson, accompanied by Section Secretary W. H. Croft of the Central Arizona Light & Power Company, known since 1952 as Arizona Public Service Company (APS). In 1920 Ben Ferguson worked as an engineer for the Arizona Corporation Commission. As of August 1, 1941, the Section had 28 members.

The first IRE Phoenix Section Chair, Gerald C. Rich, filed the patents "Semi-Conductor Unit" and "Transistor Unit" in 1953 that indicate he worked for Motorola at the time. He resided in Scottsdale.

The Phoenix Section Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Society Chapter won the 1973 best Chapter award from the Society.

Mike Andrews, the 2013 Region 6 Director, recalls that he was Region 6 Southwest Area Chair when Earl Robbins was Section Chair in 1982. In the 1970s Section meetings were held at a restaurant near Central & Indian School Rd. in Phoenix. The Section bank account was with Valley National Bank.

Phoenix Section Chairs

Year	Chair	Affiliation
2014	Barbara McMinn	APS
2013	Charles E. Weitzel	none
2012	Ralph Hogan	Rio Salado College
2011	James H. Hudson	SRP
2010	Henning Braunisch	Intel Corporation
2009	Debendra Mallik	Intel Corporation
2008	Keith E. Holbert	Arizona State University
2007	N. Rao Bonda	Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.
2006	Rao S. Thallam	SRP
2005	Shamala A. Chickamenahalli	Intel Corporation
2004	George Karady	Arizona State University
2003	James E. Drye	Motorola, Inc.
2002	Charles A. Smith	Orbital Sciences Corporation
2001	Vasudeva P. Atluri	Intel Corporation
2000	James R. Hunt	SRP
1999	Elbadawy A. Elsharawy	Arizona State University
1998	Indira S. Adhihetty	Motorola, Inc.
1997	Henry A. Burger	HB Engineers
1996	Victor M. Quiros	DeVry Institute of Technology
1995	D. Elaine Pope	Intel Corporation
1994	Marty L. Halperin	DeVry Institute of Technology
1993	Vijayan K. Nair	Motorola, Inc.
1992	David R. Carroll	Motorola, Inc.
1991	Edwin W. Greeneich	Arizona State University
1990	George F. Seebeck	APS
1989	Joshua M. Wiestling	APS
1988	Ben M. Huey	Arizona State University
1987	Ronald D. McCallister	SiCOM, Inc.
1986	Alexander C. Brown	Loral Defense Systems
1985	Gregory P. Rampley	SRP
1984	Robert H. Douglas	Honeywell
1983	Gary D. Brunner	Goodyear Aerospace Corporation
1982	Earl R. Robbins	Arizona State University
1981	Wally R. Raisanen	Computrac
1980	H. James Martin
1979	Arnold L. Schwalb	SRP
1978	Everette E. Chartier
1977	Peter D. Kennedy
1976	M. M. Marsolek	SRP
1975	James A. Higgs	Arizona State University
1974	T. R. Thompson
1973	D. D. Hann
1972	V. M. Nelsen
1971	William P. Stearns	Shalako International
1970	R. W. Roberts
1969	E. H. Hill
1968	J. M. Ross
1967	Vincent Converti
1966	T. M. Morong	SRP
1965	R. K. Peterson
1964	D. T. Quisenberry
1963	G. T. Royden
1962	E. H. O'Gara (AIEE) E. H. O'Gara (IRE)
1961	A. B. Johnson (AIEE) H. R. Hyder, III (IRE)
1960	S. M. Chalmers (AIEE) J. M. Ross (IRE)	SRP
1959	F. M. Irish (AIEE) E. S. Shepard, Sr. (IRE)
1958	L. A. Potter (AIEE) R. V. Baum (IRE)	SRP
1957	W. E. McMorran (AIEE) G. L. McClanathan (IRE)
1956	T. A. Phillips (AIEE) Everett Eberhard (IRE)	Central Arizona Light & Power Co.
1955	R. H. Hartley (AIEE) William R. Saxon (IRE)
1954	E. A. Lodge (AIEE) P. W. Sokoloff (IRE)
1953	K. V. Fletcher (AIEE) Allen M. Creighton, Jr. (IRE)
1952	J. A. Redmond (AIEE) R. E. Samuelson (IRE)
1951	I. G. Jenkins, Jr. (AIEE) Gerald C. Rich (IRE)	Central Arizona Light & Power Co. Motorola, Inc.
1950	Americo Lazzari (AIEE)
1949	W. B. Bustard (AIEE)
1948	C. M. Hart (AIEE)
1947	C. A. Poppino (AIEE)
1946	Irwin W. Best (AIEE)
1945	Charles A. Rollins (AIEE)
1944	C. R. Smith (AIEE)	Central Arizona Light & Power Co.
1943	Malcolm M. Bridgwater (AIEE)	Central Arizona Light & Power Co.
1942	G. F. Maughmer (AIEE)
1941	Ben Ferguson (AIEE)

Old officer roster documents

IRE and IEEE Phoenix Section Officers 1951-1974, Phoenix Section Officers 1975-1979. (pdfs)

From 1951 to 1957 the IRE Phoenix Section Chairs and Secretaries were also listed in the Institute/IRE News and Radio Notes that appeared in the November issues of the Proceedings of the IRE (1951 example). The AIEE Arizona Section Chairs and Secretaries from 1941 to 1951 can be found in the December issues of the Transactions of the AIEE (1941 example). Credit goes to Dr. Sheldon Hochheiser of the IEEE History Center at Rutgers University for chasing down the 1952 to 1962 AIEE Arizona Section Chairs in the AIEE Year Books; AIEE Officers, Committees and Representatives; and the AIEE Organizational Manual.

Bylaws

Section Bylaws of 2001
Note: Per Section 9.4.E of the Member and Geographic Activities (MGA) Operations Manual, Section Bylaws are not required. All Sections will be required to operate in accordance IEEE Bylaws, Policies and the MGA Operations Manual.

Links and Documents

Phoenix Section Web site

IEEE Geographic Unit Organizing Document - Phoenix

IRE Phoenix Section formation letter 1951.pdf

IRE+IEEE Phoenix Section officers 1951-1974.pdf

Phoenix Section officers 1975-1979.pdf

GCRich Patent 1954.pdf

GCRich Patent 1958.pdf

Notice of Section formation: Report of the Board of Directors, Trans. AIEE, vol. 60, pp. 1449, 1941 (see under "Sections" on p. 1450)