Two important things happened in February 1952. On the 1st, the Tampa Section of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, AIEE, was formed. On the 6th, Elizabeth became Queen of England. There were probaly more but this is enough.

The yearbooks at IEEE Headquarters show that the Tampa Section of AIEE was formed Feb. 1, 1952. The first Chair was Benjamin Nicholson Darlington. He was a Transmission Engineer for Peninsular Telephone Company, later to become GTE and now Verizon. The Secretary was Charles John Ellis. He was the Manager of the Tampa Office of the General Electric Company.

In 1952 there were 122 members in the section. Today there are in excess of 2300. There were 381 AIEE members in the entire state of Florida.

There were three sections then, Jacksonville, Miami and Tampa. Members in the pan handle were part of the Alabama Section. Today there are 12 Florida sections with over 9700 members.

We covered more geography in 1952 than we do now. At the time of organization the section territory included the following cities: Arcadia, Bartow, Bradenton, Clearwater, Clermont, Cocoa, Cocoa Beach, Eustis, Fort Myers, Haines City, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Lake Wales, Largo, Melbourne Beach, Mulberry, Orlando, Plant City, St. Petersburg, Sanford, Sarasota, Tampa, Winter Haven and Winter Park across the center of Florida to the East coast and from Tampa down to Fort Myers. Today it runs from Ocala down to Fort Myers and east to Lakeland.

The Florida West Coast Section of the Institute of Radio Engineers,IRE, was Chartered on November 14, 1956. Its first Chair was Edwin Lee White. He was a Fellow of both AIEE and IRE with separate citations.

Then, members worked for the utilities and other companies such as: Tampa Armature Works, including its President, Raybo Electric Supplies, Engineering firms, General Electric and Westinghouse. One was an inspector for the Tax Assessor and a number were in the Air Force.

In the merger of AIEE and IRE into IEEE in 1963 the two sections became one, using the Florida West Coast name.

At least four of the sections past chairs went on to be the Region 3 Director and a member of the IEEE Board of Directors. Five served as Chair of the Florida Council One of the chairs was a Congressional Fellow. Five past chairs served on the Southcon Board of Directors.