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    The Obligation: A History of the Order of the Engineer
    The Obligation: A History of the Order of the Engineer
    The Obligation: A History of the Order of the Engineer
    Ebook198 pages1 hour

    The Obligation: A History of the Order of the Engineer

    By Kip A. Wedel

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    A History of the Order of the Engineer

    Engineering is more than number crunching. It is a matter of life and death. In 1907, when engineering errors led to a Canadian bridge collapse that killed seventy-five men, the profession's moral obligations were stark and obvious. Engineers increasingly realized that technical expertise was not enough, and in 1925, a group of Canadian engineers formally and publicly promised to uphold the highest ethical standards. To remind themselves of their pledge, they fashioned iron rings to be worn on the outer finger.

    Unfortunately, for decades engineers in the United States had no similar institution. Then, on a summer day in 1970, 170 engineers, students, and teachers met on the campus of Cleveland State University for the first ceremony of what would become the Order of the Engineer. Today, the stainless steel rings worn by the Orders members are recognized throughout the world as the outward sign of an inward commitment to ethical engineering. This is the story of the Orders origins and expansion.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateJul 9, 2012
    ISBN9781477219676
    The Obligation: A History of the Order of the Engineer
    Author

    Kip A. Wedel

    Kip A. Wedel has taught American history at Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas, since 2012. Before teaching, he worked as a journalist for 16 years. The first edition of The Obligation appeared in 2011.

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      Book preview

      The Obligation - Kip A. Wedel

      © 2012 by Kip A. Wedel. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the Order of the Engineer.

      Published by AuthorHouse 07/02/2012

      ISBN: 978-1-4772-1969-0 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4772-1968-3 (hc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4772-1967-6 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2012910970

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Contents

      Dedication

      Preface

      Introduction

      Chapter 1 Origins

      The Canadian Prologue

      The Founding Of The Order Of The Engineer

      Chapter 2 Growth

      Governance

      Growing Pains

      Chapter 3 Revitalization

      New Administration

      A Stronger Organization

      Publicity

      Appendix A The Obligation

      Appendix B Code Of Regulations

      Appendix C Links

      Appendix D Board Of Governors

      Appendix E Officers

      Appendix F The Sons Of Martha

      Appendix G Obligation Certificates

      Appendix H Historical Documents

      DEDICATION

      This book is dedicated to all of the engineers who have taken and those who in the future will take the Obligation of The Order of the Engineer and applied it in their personal and professional lives.

      PREFACE

      After completing my term as Chair of the Board of Governors of the Order of the Engineer, Mel Anderson, the incoming chair of the Board, asked if I would undertake the task of making sure that the History of the Order of the Engineer was published. He was aware that during my term I had suggested that a graduate student in history be located by the History Committee, Chaired by Susanne Leckband, for the purpose of writing the history of the Order. None had been located so when the incoming Chair asked that I undertake to move the project forward I willingly accepted.

      The first task was to prepare a project definition and the Committee, consisting of Susanne Leckband, Don Rathbone, Paul Hale and Derald Morgan, set about defining the requirements and scope of the history project. Members of the board were asked to look in their Universities for an able graduate student in History that would undertake the project. About the time the project scope was completed Don Rathbone located a person in the History Department at Kansas State University who was completing his PhD and was well recommended by his professors.

      This young History Instructor looked at the project scope and the budget and agreed to undertake the task. His name is Kip A. Wedel the author of this book. He has been a great asset to the project and it is the opinion of the committee that he was an outstanding choice. I have worked closely with Kip Wedel throughout the project.

      Many people have contributed to the success of the effort. First Susanne Leckband who gathered the first ideas through her conversations with early board members, then Paula Ostaff who never failed to find a document somewhere in a file, Richard Sealy who provided a file of historical items and notes, Don Rathbone who found an author, Paul Hale who always offered good suggestions, Bill Rauch whose recollections during the time of transition were invaluable, Monte Phillips whose review of the material was most helpful and last but not least Joanne Hundt Administrative Coordinator who at the request of Dean Ghorashi went through files and found materials at Fenn College of Engineering Cleveland State University that covered the founding era from 1970 and 1971 as well as a listing of all inductees at CSU from the beginning and numerous Ceremony Programs. Kip Wedel has documented the names of the other contributors who took time to visit with him by phone and share with him their recollections.

      The Order of the Engineer Obligation is a reminder of our Calling and our pact with our Profession as Engineers. As this history was being written Kip Wedel on his own came to know, through his reading and interviews, of an individual who is known in his time to have kept his obligation to the profession, his name is Roger Boisjoly. Kip Wedel attempted to interview Roger Boisjoly to get some perspective to his writing of the history of the Order of the Engineer and the true meaning of the Obligation. Unfortunately, Mr. Boisjoly was in his final stage of life and was suffering from incurable cancer. While the book was under preparation Mr. Boisjoly died. It is appropriate to tell his story here as a guidepost for all engineers who take the Obligation and adhere to its premise.

      "Roger Boisjoly, the engineer who warned of a possible O-ring failure that could lead to the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger, died on January 6 in Utah, according to the New York Times.

      Nearly a decade after the disaster, Boisjoly shared his story with NSPE. Below is the complete article from the August 1995 issue of Engineering Times.

      PE Perseveres, 10 Years After Challenger Explosion

      By Molly Galvin

      Associate Editor

      As filmgoers pack Apollo 13 and marvel at the story about a disaster that almost was, Roger Boisjoly tells the story of the disaster that NASA failed to avoid. For 10 years, the professional engineer has been living with the aftermath of the Challenger space shuttle explosion and the events that ended his aerospace career. He has managed not only to find the lessons in that loss but also to carve new opportunities from it.

      As a lead engineer for Morton Thiokol, a NASA contractor that helped develop the Challenger’s solid rocket booster, Boisjoly in effect predicted the disaster before it occurred. He correctly noted that the critical O-ring seals in the booster could fail in the low temperatures expected on Challenger’s launch day. But company management repeatedly ignored Boisjoly’s and other engineers’ warnings.

      His story of managers putting profit over safety and, ultimately, human life, is as chilling today as it was 10 years ago. The day before the launch, a teleconference was held with NASA officials and Morton Thiokol management. After NASA officials expressed disappointment with Thiokol engineers’ recommendation to cancel the launch, the company’s senior managers overruled that decision. Take off your engineer’s hat and put on your manager’s hat, a Thiokol senior manager told the vice president of engineering.

      The next day, the world watched the disastrous consequences. I had made up my mind not to watch the launch, says Boisjoly, but ended up watching at a colleague’s urging. At first, it looked like the launch might make it. I whispered to him that we had just dodged a bullet, he says. Sixty seconds into the flight [my colleague] whispered back that he had completed a prayer of thanks. Thirteen seconds later, we all saw the horror of destruction as the vehicle exploded.

      Boisjoly’s life would never be the same. A few days later, he was assigned to a failure investigation team with several other engineers. What I saw there made me sick all over again, because NASA was definitely engaged in a massive cover-up attempt. Officials were trying to hide the fact that the 31 degree F temperature at launch had any effect on the explosion, he says. And he learned some other disturbing news. NASA’s initial quick [statement] that [the astronauts] died instantly was simply not true, Boisjoly says. The astronauts . . . were alive when they hit the water in excess of 200 miles an hour.

      For Boisjoly, the nightmare only grew worse as a presidential commission investigated the circumstances surrounding the explosion. I submitted quite a few documents that clearly showed this was a preventable event. It was a disaster waiting to happen, caused by people who simply wouldn’t listen. The investigation went from strictly an examination of technical aspects to a grilling of managerial decisions. [Thiokol managers] were extremely angry when I turned in my documentation and that anger increased as I continued to testify, says Boisjoly. During testimony at a committee hearing, he publicly refuted a manager’s assertion that Thiokol engineers weren’t unanimous in recommending that the launch be canceled. When I finished they were so damn mad that I think if they had guns they would have shot me on the spot, he says.

      While his career at Morton

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