William Wickenden
- Birthdate
- 1882/12/24
- Birthplace
- Toledo, OH, USA
- Death date
- 1947/09/01
- Associated organizations
- Case School of Applied Science
- Awards
- Lamme medal by the Society for the Promotion of Engineering' Education
1945 -1946
William E. Wickenden, AIEE President, 1945 - 1946, was elected president of Case School of Applied Science at Case Western Reserve University in 1929.
Biography
Wickenden was AIEE president from 1945 to 1946.
William Elgein Wickenden, President, Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, Ohio, awarded the eighth Lamme medal by the Society for the Promotion of Engineering' Education at its forty-third annual meeting at Georgia School of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, June 26, 1935.
President Wickenden was born in Toledo, Ohio, December 24. 1882. After graduating from Denison University, Ohio, in 1904, he started his teaching career as instructor in physics at Mechanics Institute, Rochester, New York. The following year, he became Assistant in Physics at the University of Wisconsin and later transferred to the department of electrical engineering. In 1909, he became Assistant Professor, and in 1914, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1918 to 1921, he was Personnel Director of the Western Electric Company. In 1921, he was appointed Assistant Vice President of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, resigning in 1924 to become Director of the Investigation of Engineering Education for the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education (SPEE). He was elected president of Case School of Applied Science in 1929.
As a teacher, personnel manager, and educational administrator his entire career was characterized by unusual clarity of perception and expression. These qualities have given distinction and exceptional value to the multi-volume report of the investigation of engineering education. The manner in which the investigation was conducted is not only a tribute to his technical ability but shows unmistakably the influence of his administrative genius upon a major survey of educational activities.
Wickenden was elected a Member of the Council of the Society in 1924, and in 1933, President. He is the author of a book on Illumination and Photometry. He was Regional Supervisor of Personnel Methods, S. A. T. C., 1918. In also served as a Director of the Adult Education Association of Cleveland, a Trustee of Cleveland College, President of the Ohio College Association, and consulting member of the Committee on the Improvement of College Teaching of the A. A. U. In civic activities, he served as a Director of the Cleveland Community Fund, Director of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, Vice-President of the Cleveland Welfare Federation, Chairman of the Ohio Labor Board, and Chairman of the Ohio Highway Survey Committee. He was a member of the Association for the Advancement of Science; the American Society of Mechanical Engineers; the American Institute of Electrical Engineers; the American Association of Political and Social Science; the Cleveland Engineering Society; and the Cleveland Community Fund.
He was also a member of Sigma Chi, Phi Beta Kappa, and Sigma Xi. Honorary degrees bestowed upon him include: Doctor of Engineering, Lafayette College, 1926, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 1927, Case School of Applied Science, 1929, and Rose Polytechnic Institute, 1932; Doctor of Science, Denison University, 1928, and Bucknell University, 1930; Doctor of Laws, Oberlin College, 1930; and Doctor of Humane Letters, Otterbein College, 1933.
Photographs
John E. Housley with William E. Wickenden
Further Reading
Papers of William E. Wickenden - correspondence and records, 1907 - 1947
