History of the Eastern North Carolina
Section American Society of Mechanical Engineers (1923 - 1980)
The Eastern North Carolina Section of the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers originated in 1923. An organizational
meeting was held on January 25, 1923 and was led by L.L. Vaughan of the
Mechanical Engineering Department at North Carolina State College of
Agriculture and Engineering, W.H. Bond of the Raleigh Iron Works
Company and W.J. Andrews of the Norfolk Southern Railway Company. The
first resolution adopted by the organizers was:
Resolved. That it is the express purpose and fundamental aim of the
Raleigh Branch of the A.S.M.E. Carolinas Section., to promote the best
interest of the engineering profession in the vicinity; to retain the
traditions and ethics of the ASME; and to promote in every way, by
cooperating with the established civic and State bodies, the
progressive development of the community and State in civic or public
matters relative to engineering.
On February 23, 1923 twenty people joined together to petition the ASME
to Charter a Branch in Raleigh, NC At a meeting of the ASME Council in
Montreal on May 28 and 29, 1923, the Raleigh Branch of the Carolinas
Section was approved. The Charter Members of the Branch are shown below
(to be inserted later). In 1927 the Raleigh Branch became the Raleigh
Section. The Section�s territory included a radius of sixty miles from
Raleigh. Meetings were generally held at North Carolina State College
in Raleigh or at Duke University in Durham.
In 1950 the name was changed to the Eastern North Carolina Section. The
Section�s territory expanded to include 57 counties in the Piedmont and
Coastal Plain of North Carolina. This territory included all counties
in North Carolina east of and including Rockingham, Guilford (except
the City of High Point), Randolph, More, and Scotland. The headquarters
city for the Section has been designated as Durham, N.C. since 1959.
At the ASME Council Meeting on November 26-27, 1961 the establishment
of the Carolina Section was approved. This Section evolved from the
Winston-Salem Group which was part of the Eastern North Carolina
Section. Thirty-thee members were transferred to the new Section. The
remaining Eastern North Carolina Section was composed of the 44
counties in North Carolina east of and including Caswell, Alamance,
Chatham, Moore, and Scotland.
The Coastal Carolina Group of the Eastern North Carolina Section was
organized in 1974 and includes six counties on the North Carolina
Coast. Wilmington, N.C. is the headquarters city of the Group which
reported 58 members in 1975.
The first decade saw the organization grow from the 20 members that
started the Branch in 1923 to 36 members in 1933. By 1950 the
membership was 89. In the next three decades, the membership moved from
168 in 1960 to 205 in 1970, and 395 in 1980. The Chairmen of the
Section from 1930 to 1980 are listed below (to be inserted later).
This summary of the history of the Eastern North Carolina Section was
prepared by the Centennial Celebration of the founding of the American
Society of Mechanical Engineers. The Section�s Centennial Celebration
was held on February 19, 1980 in Raleigh, N.C. The history was prepared
by Frank B. Turner, Charter Member of the Raleigh Section and Section
Chairman in 1942-43; Kenneth T. Knight, Section Chairman in 1958-59 and
Region IV Vice President in 1975-77; and J. David Mobley, Chairman of
the Section�s History and Heritage Committee in 1979-1980.
As we moved into the new millenium, ASME started going through
numerous changes to restructure the society and move it into the 21st
century. Around 2002-2003, ASME adopted the moto "Setting a New
Standard" and began making radical changes to how they structured the
organization and how they operated. Many offerings began to go digital
such as online courses, electronic newsletters, email, etc. Sections
were also impacted as ASME began cutting funding and implementing a
merit based funding program where sections had to meet certain
requirements to obtain full funding. On the local level during some of
this transition time, Michael Hiller (MSME, NCSU'87) was the Eastern NC
ASME Section Chair for three terms from 2004 thru 2007 and the Progams
Chair for a couple of years before that. Robert Hall was the Vice Chair
for last two
of Mike's terms, and Edwin Duncan was Vice Chair before that.
During those years the annual EggDrop contest grew in prominence,
the Section helped to host the April '05 Regional Conference (RAC/RSC),
and the section also began to mentor & sponsor local High School
FirstRobotic teams. In 2006 the Section added short courses to
the calendar to better align the program offerings with new ASME merit-
based funding criteria.
If you have addtional information to add or know any of the
1980-present history, please contact Chris Yahnker at
.
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This page is maintained by Chris Yahnker, . All comments and suggestions are welcomed.
Last updated September 17, 2007