Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on March 6, 1931.
CELEBRATE ENGINEER’S DAY
(BY ROBERT ALLETT)
Special convocation was held at the university this morning to commemorate the annual Engineer’s Day, President O.C. Kreinheder announced that due to the exceptionally large enrollment in the department of engineering this year, the administrative authorities have decided to establish a separate college of engineering with the advent of the fall term.
Dr. H. W. Moody, head of the present department of engineering was the principal speaker at the gathering. The subject of his address was “The Engineer and Society”. He traced the history of engineering, described some of its outstanding achievements and discussed the problems confronting the modern engineer.
“Engineering is as old as mankind,” said Dr. Moody. “This evidence is found in structures built with the crudest tools for the purpose of the protection of life, tombs for the dead, and monuments for the worship of deities.” he cited the construction of Roosevelt Dam in Arizona, a project undertaken by the government, as an example of the magnitude of the engineer’s work.
Courses in civil engineering were offered for the first time at Valparaiso in 1873. Higher mathematics, surveying, and civil engineering, taught by Prof. M. E. Bogarte, constituted the chief courses on the engineering curriculum in 1903, a department of Manual Training, now that of Industrial Arts, was established. Prof. R. C. Yeoman, in 1909, changed the course of study to a three-year offering in civil engineering. From time to time other divisions of engineering were included until finally in 1917, the School of Engineering, henceforth the College of Engineering, was organized. The new college will offer the degree of Bachelor of Science in all the curricula offered.
The university enjoys a location very favorable for work in engineering, being situated about forty-five miles from Chicago, and in the heart of the Calumet region, throughout which field trips may easily be arranged.
Officials from manufacturing concerns of Gary, Hammond, Whiting, Michigan City, South Bend, LaPorte, and Valparaiso attended the convocation.
As a celebration befitting the occasion of the establishing the new college the Engineering Society of the University will hold a banquet tonight in the Lembke hotel at which W. S. Johns, engineer of the maintenance of way of the northwest region of the Pennsylvania railroad, will speak.
