IEEE Orlando Section History

IEEE Orlando Section History
Established date	1959-05-13
IEEE Region	3
IEEE Council	Florida
Geographic region	Orlando
Region area
Principal cities
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List of Subsections in this Section

Origins of the Orlando Section

The beginnings of the Orlando section date back over fifty years. An IRE section was chartered in late spring, 1959, and an AIEE section chartered on Sept. 26, 1960. Records of the initial chairman of the IRE have eluded the editor, as have the names of the AIEE chairman for 1962-63, but for those of you who may be able to fill the missing names, the list on page 5 identifies most of the chairs and award recipients through the years.

The drive for forming the AIEE section was led by R.R. Rowell, Jim Layne, J.O. (Bill) Lucius and A.J. Faron. From its inception, the section included two technical groups. The Power group was led by J.L. Munroe, Vic Gardner, A.J. Faron, K. Canell and Bill Lucius; the Communications group was led by W.E. Hahn, Bill Jamieson and M.C. Loper. There were also a Missile Elecrical Systems-East Coast Group and a Missile Electronics Systems-Central Group, but we have no record of their activities.

In 1963, IRE and AIEE were merged nationally. At the section level, E.O. Houseman, John Tracy and Jim Walter from IRE and Jim Layne, Bob Rowell and Bill Jamieson from AIEE had a series of meetings to form a joint section, the Orlando Section of the IEEE. Just as there was at the national level, the local groups were each unsure whether merger was in the best interest of their membership. However, since the merger, the Orlando section has progressed to the point that much of the Florida Council looks to our section for its leadership and for ideas on maintaining a healthy and active section.

For more information about the Orlando section, visit their homepage.  Link to Section Homepage

Orlando Section Chairmen and Honored Engineers

Year	Chairmen
1959-60	N/A
1960-61	IRE Al Gray	AIEE Robert R. Rowell
1961-62	IRE Bob Matzinger	AIEE Robert R. Rowell
1962	IRE W.L. Arbuckle
1963	IRE Wes Eddy
1963-64	IEEE Ernest Houseman
1964-65	IEEE Robert R. Rowell
1965-66	Bill Jamieson
1966-67	Jim Walter
1967-68	John Tracey
1968-69	J.W. Dees
1969-70	M.J. Taylor	Engineer of the Year	Outstanding Service Award
1970-71	Joe Pullara
1971-72	Jim Gay	Bruce Matthews
1972-73	E.V. Dashiell	Tom Bayston
1973-74	Karl Lohman	John Boynton	John Tracey
1974-75	J.C. Wiltse	Ed McCarter	Joe Pullara
1975-76	H.E. Downing	Dick Harden	Joe Pullara
1976-77	Ed McCarter	George McClure	Russ Theisen
1977-78	BIll Rhoden	Herb Towle	Bill Cran
1978-79	Russ Theisen	Russ Theisen	George McClure
1979-80	Ernie Erickson	Ben Patz	Bill Rhoden
1980-81	George McClure	Don Mendorf	Mannie Connell
1981-82	Ben Patz	Ernie Erickson
1982-83	Mannie Connell	Dave Flinchbaugh	Joe Massett
1983-84	Ed Ellis	Don Malocha
1984-85	Frank Fluet

Orlando Section Officers, 2000-2021

Year	Chair	Vice chair	Secretary	Treasurer
2000	David Flinchbaugh	Robert Pirela	Xinzhang Wu	Jerry Murphy
2001	David Flinchbaugh	Robert Pirela	Xinzhang Wu	Jerry Murphy
2002	Robert Pirela	Jerry Murphy	Joe Natharoj Juisai	Xinzhang Wu
2003	Robert Pirela	Xinzhang Wu	Thomas Wandeloski	Joe Natharoj Juisai
2004	Xinzhang Wu	Joe Natharoj Juisai	Shin-Tson Wu	Thomas Wandeloski
2005	Joe Natharoj Juisai	Thomas Wandeloski	Yi Guo	Debra Prince / Joe Natharoj Juisai
2006	Thomas Wandeloski	M Stephen Karlovic	Donghui Wu	Jeffrey Tussey
2007	M Stephen Karlovic	Donghui Wu	Xun Gong	Jeffrey Tussey
2008	M Stephen Karlovic	Donghui Wu	Xun Gong	Kalpathy Sundaram
2009	Donghui Wu	Xun Gong	Michael Orlovsky	Kalpathy Sundaram
2010	Donghui Wu	Xun Gong	Michael Orlovsky	Stanley Buchanan
2011	Xun Gong	Michael Orlovsky	Stanley Buchanan	L Guthrie
2012	Michael Orlovsky	Stanley Buchanan	V Rajaravivarma	L Guthrie
2013	Michael Orlovsky	Stanley Buchanan	V Rajaravivarma	L Guthrie
2014	Stanley Buchanan	V Rajaravivarma	L Guthrie	Debbie Hall
2015	Stanley Buchanan	V Rajaravivarma	L Guthrie	Yiliu Wang
2016	V Rajaravivarma	L Guthrie	Joseph Lias	Rui Tang
2017	V Rajaravivarma	Debbie Hall	Genevieve Sapijaszko	Christopher Nergard
2018	Debbie Hall	Christopher Nergard	Warren Macchi	Warren Macchi
2019	Joe Natharoj Juisai	Christopher Nergard	Varadraj Gurupur	Warren Macchi
2020	Warren Macchi	Varadraj Gurupur	Steffen Camarato	Maneck Master
2021	Varadraj Gurupur	Steffen Camarato	Pierce Mooney	M. H. Hassan

Life Members in the Orlando Section

As of September 15, 1984, the Orlando Section of IEEE has 69 Life Members. The breakdown under various categories is as follows:
Life Fellows = 6
Life Senior Members = 33
Life Members = 29
Life Associates = 1

Life membership is granted retired members of IEEE if the sum of their age and years of membership equals or exceeds 100. These qualifications automatically imply that in our life members we have a great wealth of history, of experience, and of interesting stories. We attempted to gather information from as many of these 69 members as could be reached.

Some of these Life Members have provided us a brief write up of their major professional accomplishments and contributions. We have summarized these here for general interest.

Roberts L. Batts, Sr. Designed the first successful mobile police radio. It was built for the Detroit Police Department and was first on the air April 7, 1928. Mr. Batts’ first major career was with the Indianapolis Police and Fire Communication (22 years) and his second major career was with Motorola (21 years).

George W. Baughman 44 years with Union Switch and Signal and its parent company Westinghouse Air Brake. He placed in service (commercially), the copper oxide rectifier for automatic train control (1925), has 110 U.S. patents and foreign patents and had been very active in IEEE Pittsburgh section and on various IEEE boards and committees. He received Elmer A. Sperry award in 1971 and B.G. Lamme Gold Medal from Ohio State University in 1978. A working model of one of his systems for Remote Control of Railway Signals is at the Smithsonian Institute. Mr. Baughman’s professional carrier included assignments as Chief Engineer of Union Switch and Signal and as Vice President of Westinghouse Air Brake.

Homer R. Denius Co-founder of Radiation Inc. in Melbourne, FL in 1950, which sold to Harris in 1967 when there was were 4500 employees with over 1000 engineers. Mr. Denius led to the founding of the First National Bank of Melbourne in 1958 and was instrumental in establishing Florida Instrument of Technology, In 1960l he established Denius Foundation which supported FIT and charitable and medical organizations. He continues to enjoy riding, hunting, and fishing, and has participated in many ocean races as a sailor and navigator.

John L. Glauber Through IRE meetings in New York, he met such celebrities as Thomas Edison, Lee de Forest, Edwin Armsttrong, Louis Hazeltine, etc. Mr. Glauber has been active in amateur radio since 1921.

Hamilton Powell Technical activities in the area of high voltage power systems including design and manufacture of outdoor stations, power circuit breakers, current limiting power fuses and control systems. Since retirement, he has been involved in designing and installation of electrical systems for mission work around the world. He keeps up-to-date in the power area through IEEE magazines.

James O. Pease Actively served IEEE Washington Section of AIEE heading various committees and section chairs for about 25 years while he was first the manager of the Washington D.C. office and later Division Vice-President of Utility Division of Rumsey Electric Co. of Philadelphia. He retired in the early 1970s, moving to Winter Park in 1977.

Archival Documents

• Section petition documents
• IEEE Geographic Unit Organizing Document - Orlando
• Orlando Section Notes, Volume XX, Number 2, October 1984, Centennial Special Edition