IEEE West Virginia Section History

Asad Davari, current WV Section Chairman, requested that I write an article about the section's history and then realized that I have been a member of the section for over forty years. Much has changed over this period and, unfortunately, not all for the better.

After graduating from WV State College in May 1966 with a degree in Physics and Mathematics, I accepted a position in the microwave section of the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company in Charleston, WV. During the following summer, I was invited to join the IEEE WV Section and attended monthly meetings at the Rose City Cafeteria in South Charleston. Attendance averaged around 50 members and some of my supervisors were officers in the section. Industry in the Kanawha Valley was going strong with the Chemical Industry dominating the scene. There were thousands of engineers employed by Union Carbide, DuPont, FMC, Westvaco, as well as utilities such as the telephone company, Appalachian Electric Power, United Fuel Gas (Columbia), WV Water Company and AT&T. Some of these organizations no longer exist. The sixties represent the peak of section activities that were directed by the section officers through the support of their employers. Names like Zan White, Paul Sinsel, Bob Peacock, Russ Gates and Sam McCoy are a small number of those that participated in our section.

The seventies saw a continual decrease in participating members, particularly new and younger members. I was a faculty member in Electrical Engineering at WV Institute of Technology (WVIT) in Montgomery during this period. The majority of the engineering students was from the Middle East and had little interest in joining the IEEE student section. However, the remainder of the industrial members were able to keep the section active even as the number of retired engineers began to overtake the employed ones. As this support dwindled, an effort was made to operate the WV Section out of WVUIT and was successful into the eighties. As engineering enrollments declined, I joined the Industrial Technology Department at WV State College and developed an ABET accredited Engineering Technology program.

Throughout the nineties, WVUIT was unable to maintain the section and the section was operated out of the Charleston area, particularly with the support of Columbia Transmission Systems. While this support continued for a decade, again retirements without replacement and transfers to Columbus, Ohio finally ended industrial support. With the catastrophic losses in the chemical industry and the loss of Union Carbide and utility downsizing, the outlook into the 21st century was very bleak. A combined effort of Bluefield State and WV State Colleges with joint operation in the middle and southern WV areas continued through the current period. Through discussions with WVUIT (formerly WVIT) to transfer the leadership of the WV Section back to Montgomery will lead to increased vitality in the Section and a renewed commitment to Math, Science, Engineering and Technology in the central region of the State.