Our History
College of Engineering Timeline...
The University of Akron’s College
of Engineering has a history of academic excellence dating back to
1913.
This timeline
highlights key events in the college’s development.
1870
|
Buchtel College
is founded. During cornerstone-laying ceremonies, Horace Greeley,
editor of the New York Tribune and
ceremony speaker, said one day he hoped to see the college "graduate
a great and glorious body of young and earnest men in engineering,
science, and a hundred different pursuits where knowledge is
of great benefit to humankind." |
1913
The College of Engineering is founded in September, as
Buchtel College formally becomes the Municipal University of Akron.
1914: Frederic
E. Ayer, a former civil engineering professor at the University of
Cincinnati. Becomes the first dean of the College of Engineering.
1914: The Cooperative
Education Program was initiated at The University of Akron.
|
1917-1918:
The Department of Electrical
Engineering is established. John S. Kennedy receives
the college’s first
degree, a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering.
|
 |
1936: The college
adds an aeronautical option to the mechanical engineering program.
The years later, it adds an industrial option. Both programs are
terminated years later.
1941: The mechanical and
electrical engineering programs, including the aeronautical and
industrial options, are accredited by the Accreditation
Board for Engineering and Technology.
1942: World
War II creates a need for engineers. As a result, the co-op program
is suspended in lieu of a three year accelerated program. The accelerated
program ends in 1948 and co-op returns.
1946: Ransom
D. Landon, a civil engineering professor and coordinator of the co-op
program at Southern Methodist University, is appointed as the college’s
second dean.
1948-1949: Construction
begins on Ayer Hall, a $550,000 building to house the entire college.
Ruth Hixenbaugh Neill becomes the first
woman to graduate form the college when she receives a degree in
mechanical engineering.
1956-1959: Masters
degree program in engineering is approved. Harry G. Holcombe becomes
the first black student to earn an engineering degree, that of mechanical
engineering.
1964: Michael
Rzasa, a 17 year veteran old the petroleum industry, becomes the
college’s third dean. The Department of Chemical Engineering is established,
with Coleman Major hired to lead the new department.
 |
1967-1969:
UA becomes a state university.
Construction begins on the college’s current home,
the Norman P. Auburn Science and Engineering Center.
A doctoral
program
in Engineering
is approved by the Ohio Board of Regents.
|
1970-1971: Coleman
Major becomes the college’s fourth dean in 1970. The college celebrates
the graduation of its first two doctoral candidates.
1976-1981: The
Construction Technology Program is established.
The Institute of Biomedical Engineering Research is founded with Coleman Major
as the first director. Louis A. Hill Jr., former head of the civil engineering
department at Arizona State, becomes the college’s fifth dean.
1983-1984: The Center of Polymer Engineering is founded
to conduct applied research on polymer processes. The Department
of Polymer
Engineering is founded. James White, and internationally known researcher
from the University of Tennessee, comes to UA to oversee the department
and research center.
1988: The polymer
engineering center and polymer engineering department move to the
newly established College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering.
1989: Nicholas
D. Sylvester, director of the Center for Environmental Research and
Technology at the University of Tulsa, becomes the college’s sixth
dean.
1993: A $21 million dollar
renovation project to expand the space and remodel the Auburn Science
and Engineering Center begins.
1995: Irving
F. Miller becomes the college’s seventh dean after serving 22 years
at the University of Illinois at Chicago as director of the bioengineering
department, head of the chemical engineering department, dean of
the Graduate College, associate vice chancellor for research and
director of the Center for Advanced Education and Research.
1998: Dr.
S. Graham Kelly serves as Interim Dean of the College of Engineering
after serving Associate Provost
from 1994 to 1998 at the University of Akron.
2003: Dr. George Haritos becomes the
college’s eighth dean
after serving as the commandant of the Air Force Institute of Technology.
