IEEE Boston Section History
Boston Section History
Boston was the 12th Branch in AIEE, and the 3rd in Region 1. Boston was very active in the founding of IRE, and provided 3 of the first 5 Presidents; John Greenleaf Pickard, Director of the Wireless Specialty Apparatus Company, in 1913; John Stone Stone, President of Stone Wireless and Telegraph Company, in 1915; and Arthur Kennelly, Professor of Engineering at Harvard and MIT, in 1916. Arthur Kennelly was also President of the AIEE in 1898-1900. There were three other Presidents of AIEE from Boston; Alexander Graham Bell, who taught and did his original telephone work in Boston; Comfort Adams, Professor at Harvard; and Frank Jewett, Professor at MIT. The first officers of IRE were: A. E. Kennelly, Chairman; and Melville Eastham, Secretary. The archives start in 1904, the year after Boston Joined the AIEE, and the officers for 1904 were: R. Fleming, Chairman; and G. H. Stickney, Secretary.
Boston Section has continued its very active support after the formation of IEEE in 1963. Richard Damon was elected IEEE President in 1981, and Dr. Arthur Winston in 2004. Nine Boston members have been elected Region 1 Directors and Chairman of the Region 1 BOG; Dr. W. Crawford Dunlap, 1966-1967; Dr. Harry Mimno, 1968-69; Dr. James Storer, 1970-71, Harold Goldberg, 1972-73; Dr. James Shepherd, 1978-79; Dr. Bruce Wedlock, 1982-83; John Kaczorowski, 1990-91; Dr. Arthur Winston, 1996-97; and Dr. Howard Michel, 2008-09. Fromm 1963 - 2009, Boston conducted 23 Regional Meetings for Region 1. From 1980-1988 Dr. Bruce Wedlock conducted the Spring Meetings at the MIT Stratton building, Student Center.
The Boston Section has been continually involved in the development of engineering knowledge, and new electronic inventions and product development. The Section formed the New England Research and Engineering Meeting (NEREM), which they operated until 1976 when NEREM merged with the New York IEEE International Conference (INTERCON) to form the Trade Show ELECTRO. The Boston and NEW York Sections continued to operate ELECTRO shows annually for 20 years until the program ceased to be financially self supporting. Boston area also provided key research and development in Electronics, with MIT, Lincoln Laboratory, and large firms such as Raytheon. There were key activities in Military Electronics.
IEEE Geographic Unit Organizing Document - Boston
Sister Section
In June 2009, the Boston Section set up an agreement to be sister Sections with the Montreal Section in Region 7.
Officer List
| Year | Chair | Secretary |
| 1904 | C.L. Edgar | C.B. Burleigh |
| 1904-1905 | R. Fleming | G.H. Stickney |
