List of Presidents of the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE)

IRE Presidents, 1912-1962

IRE Past Presidents, 1966. L-R, George Bailey, Arthur V. Loughren, Donald G. Fink, John D. Ryder, Donald B. Sinclair, Haraden Pratt, Stuart L. Bailey, Alfred N. Goldsmith, Ivan S. Coggeshall, Ernst Weber, Frederick B. Llewellyn

• 1912 - Robert H. Marriott (19 February 1879 - 31 October 1951), completed the first Pacific Coast commercial broadcasting system operative between an island off the coast of California and the California mainland. Also, he was the first man in America to use the telephone and detector method for radio reception.

• 1913 - Greenleaf W. Pickard (14 February 1877 - 8 January 1956), received a patent for a silicon crystal detector in 1906, and he founded the Wireless Specialty Apparatus Company in order to market his detectors.

• 1914 - Louis W. Austin (30 October 1867 - 27 June 1932), worked at the Bureau of Standards, where he studied radio propagation studies. He also supervised a radio laboratory at the Bureau of Standards.

• 1915 - John Stone Stone (24 September 1869 - 20 May 1943), invented the Stone common battery, and served as associate engineer for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company’s research and development department.

• 1916 - Arthur E. Kennelly (17 December 1861 - 18 June 1939), co-discovered the Heaviside-Kennelly layer in the ionosphere with Oliver Heaviside in 1901, which contributed to the study of radio waves.

• 1917 - Michael I. Pupin (4 October 1858 - 12 March 1935), taught mathematical physics at Columbia University. He also studied wave propagation, and applied his findings to long distance telephony experiments and research.

• 1918-1919 - George W. Pierce (11 January 1872 - 25 August 1956), is considered one of the founding fathers of communication engineering.

• 1920 - John V. L. Hogan (14 February 1890 - 29 December 1960), was one of the founders of the classical music radio station WQXR. He was also the founder of the Society of Wireless Telegraph Engineers.

• 1921 - Ernst F. W. Alexanderson (25 January 1878 - 14 May 1975), invented a self-exciting alternator. He also designed a series of high-frequency alternators for radio use.

• 1922 - Fulton Cutting (27 December 1886 - 4 December 1967), was former president and chairman of the Colonial Radio Corporation in Buffalo, New York.

• 1923 - Irving Langmuir (31 January 1881 - 16 August 1957), worked at the General Electric Research Laboratory, and helped to modernize vacuum tube engineering.

• 1924 - John Harold Morecroft (19 September 1881 - 26 January 1934), was an engineering professor at Pratt Institute and Columbia University, and he served as a scientific expert to the U.S. Navy.

• 1925 - John H. Dellinger (3 July 1886 - 28 December 1962), was vice president of the International Scientific Radio Union, and served as chairman of the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics.

• 1926 - Donald M. McNicol (23 July 1875 - 7 September 1953), worked for land-line telegraph companies, and published three books about telegraph engineering.

• 1927 - Ralph Bown (22 February 1891 - 20 July 1971), focused on improving long-distance communication, and he led the press conference that announced the invention of the transistor.

• 1928 - Alfred N. Goldsmith (15 September 1888 - 2 July 1974), began working for RCA as the director of research, and later became vice president and general manager of the company.

• 1929 - Albert Hoyt Taylor (1 January 1879 - 11 December 1961), was in charge of the Aircraft Radio Laboratory, and he later directed a radar development project for ships to use in order to detect enemy ships and aircraft.

• 1930 - Lee de Forest (26 August 1873 - 30 June 1961), patented the Audion, which is a three element vacuum tube that was a sensitive wireless receptor, in 1907.

• 1931 - Ray H. Manson (25 August 1877 - 1962), was the chief engineer for the Stromberg-Carlson Telephone Manufacturing Company in Rochester, New York. He also received over fifty U.S. patents relating to the telephone, phonograph, and radio.

• 1932 - Walter G. Cady (10 December 1874 - 9 December 1974), studied crystal resonators in radio frequency applications, which later led to him being granted two patents for his research in 1922.

• 1933 - Lewis M. Hull (27 February 1899 - 24 March 1982), was the director of research and later the vice president of the Radio Frequency Laboratories.

• 1934 - C. M. Jansky, Jr. (28 June 1895 - 1975), helped to establish government radio regulation, and he also worked to create the National Association of Broadcasters.

• 1935 - Charles Stuart Ballantine (22 September 1897 - 1944), discovered the antenna effect in coil-type systems, and he invented the capacity compensator for these systems.

• 1936 - Alan Hazeltine (7 August 1886 - 24 May 1964), designed the SE 1420, which was used on destroyers, and the Neutrodyne, which aided broadcast reception.

• 1937 - Harold H. Beverage (14 October 1893 - 27 January 1993), supervised the development of receivers for transoceanic communications at RCA, which led to a patent for the Beverage Antenna.

• 1938 - Haraden Pratt (18 July 1891 - August 1969), served as vice president and general manager of the International Telephone and Telegraph Company.

• 1939 - Raymond A. Heising (10 August 1888 - January 1965), researched ultra-short waves, electronics, and piezoelectric crystal devices. He also invented the Heising modulation system, among other modulation systems.

• 1940 - Lawrence C. F. Horle (27 May 1892 - 29 October 1950), was an expert radio aide for the U.S. Navy during World War I, and his work centered around the standardization of terminology and ratings.

• 1941 - Frederick E. Terman (7 June 1900 - 19 December 1982), viewed as one of the founding fathers of the Silicon Valley. He is also the author of Radio Engineering, which would become an important textbook for the profession.

• 1942 - Arthur F. Van Dyck (20 May 1891 - 1978), served as an expert radio aide for the United States Navy, and he was in charge of radio receiver design at General Electric Company.

• 1943 - Lynde P. Wheeler (27 July 1874 - 1 February 1959), was the chief of engineering in the Federal Communications Commission’s information division.

• 1944 - Hubert M. Turner (20 July 1882 - 12 February 1965), was in charge of graduate research in electrical engineering at Yale University.

• 1945 - William L. Everitt (14 April 1900 - 6 September 1986), served in the department of development and research at the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.

• 1946 - Frederick B. Llewellyn (16 September 1897 - 10 December 1971), designed a sensitive receiver, which was used to detect radar signals reflected from the moon, with Edwin H. Armstrong.

• 1947 - Walter R. G. Baker (1892 - 30 October 1960), was the manager of GE’s radio-television facility. He also directed the Radio Manufacturers Association’s engineering department.

• 1948 - Benjamin E. Shackelford (12 August 1891 - November 1983), was in charge of the engineering and development of radio tubes for Westinghouse Lamp Company.

• 1949 - Stuart L. Bailey (7 October 1905 - 11 August 1984), was in charge of the laboratory activities at the engineering consulting firm that he co-founded with C. M. Jansky. His research was also a pioneering factor in the study of directional antennas.

• 1950 - Raymond F. Guy (4 July 1899 - 12 July 1975), worked on the engineering staff of RCA’s research laboratories. He also participated in RCA’s early developments regarding the television.

• 1951 - Ivan S. Coggeshall (30 September 1896 - 9 August 1990), researched the integration and end-on operation of landline telegraphs, undersea cables, and overseas radio circuits.

• 1952 - Donald B. Sinclair (23 May 1910 - 24 August 1985), worked on the development and design of high-frequency measuring instruments. He later became the chief engineer at Western Canada Airways.

• 1953 - James W. McRae (25 October 1910 - 2 February 1960), was chief of engineering at the Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories

• 1954 - William R. Hewlett (20 May 1913 - 12 January 2001), partnered with David Packard to form the company Hewlett-Packard.

• 1955 - John D. Ryder (8 May 1907 - 28 July 1993), worked at General Electric and Bailey Meter Company in industrial electronics. He was granted twenty-four patents.

• 1956 - Arthur V. Loughren (15 September 1902 - 14 December 1993), directed the research about color television at Hazeltine Corporation, and his findings became a part of the National Television System Committee’s standards for color television.

• 1957 - John T. Henderson (9 December 1905 - 2 January 1983), joined the National Research Council of Canada’s staff as the head of the radio section.

• 1958 - Donald G. Fink (8 November 1911 - 3 May 1996), served as vice chairman of the National Television System Committee, and he later became the director of the Philco-Ford Scientific Laboratory.

• 1959 - Ernst Weber (6 September 1901 - 16 February 1996), was a pioneer in microwave technologies and long-time leader of the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (where he was President from 1957 to 1969). In 1945, he founded the Microwave Research Institute at the Polytechnic Institute (later renamed the Weber Research Institute in his honor).

• 1960 - Ronald L. McFarlan (8 March 1905 - 7 November 1987), worked on electronic instrument design and development, which included x-rays, radar, sonar, and microwave communication.

• 1961 - Lloyd V. Berkner (1 February 1905 - 4 June 1967), was the head of the Section on Exploratory Geophysics of the Atmosphere at Carnegie Institution. Under his presidency of the Associated Universities, Inc., the organization built the National Radio Astronomy Laboratory in West Virginia.

• 1962 - Patrick E. Haggerty (17 March 1914 - 1 October 1980), was the first general manager of the Geophysical Service Incorporated’s Laboratory and Manufacturing division. He became executive vice president and director of Texas Instruments, which was formerly Geophysical Service Incorporated.

Further Reading

See also Presidents of the AIEE and Presidents of the IEEE.