Location: US 15/501 Business North (Roxboro Street) in Durham
County: Durham
Original Date Cast: 1986
Interest in forming a professional organization for engineers in North Carolina was expressed as early as 1910 by W. C. Riddick and a group of North Carolina State College alumni. On February 18, 1918, a group of thirty-eight engineers held an organizational meeting at the Malbourne Hotel in Durham (razed in the 1970s for the construction of the Durham County Courthouse). The meeting was timed to coincide with the opening of the annual Road Institute in Chapel Hill. John N. Ambler of Winston-Salem was elected as the president at the Durham meeting. W. C. Riddick was the second president, elected at the group’s Raleigh meeting in 1919.
The group was incorporated “to promote the interests of the engineering profession, render a better public service, disseminate engineering knowledge, improve relations between engineers, and foster better standards of engineering ethics.” The word “civil” was dropped from the name in 1920. In 1946 the organization established an office at the Engineering School at State College.
References:
North Carolina Society of Engineers, Yearbook (1942), and minutes for 1918 meeting