CES Newsletter: History of Cleveland Engineering Society
By Josh Healan
The year was 1880. Rutheford B. Hayes was President of the United States and formerly Governor of Ohio. In November of 1880 James A. Garfield, a resident of Cleveland, would be elected President. With a population of 160,000, Cleveland was the 11th largest city in the United States and was growing rapidly, fueled by John D. Rockefeller and The Standard Oil Compan,y which had been founded just 10 years earlier in 1870.
It was in 1880 that four visionary engineers met to debate technical and culturally significant issues facing Cleveland, but also the nation as a whole. Charles Latimer (Chief Engineer of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad), Clarence Burgess (Cuyahoga County Surveyor), Walter Rice (Assistant U.S. Engineer and later Cleveland City Engineer), and Hosea Paul (Civil Engineer) were those engineers. Oddly enough, the main topic of debate in 1880 was whether the United States should adopt the metric system and records show that every engineer had an opinion on ‘metrification’.
Those engineers realized they had a shared passion and quickly formed what was then the Civil Engineers’ Club of Cleveland. Sixty engineers signed on as charter members of the club at their first official meeting held in March of 1880. Based on the Club’s rapidly expanding membership and broader engineering interest beyond civil, the Club changed its name to the Cleveland Engineering Society in 1885.
For much of its existence, the Cleveland Engineering Society members contributed to major civic projects, including bridges, roads, water treatment systems, and public buildings. The Society’s technical papers and presentations often guided public policy and engineering standards in the city of Cleveland and beyond.
Cleveland Engineering Society membership continued to grow even through the Great Depression, where it was 1,500 paying technical professionals. Membership peaked in the 1970s at over 2,000 paying members.
While the organization continues to evolve, the original Society’s mission still rings true - to promote the advancement of engineering knowledge and foster collaboration among professionals across various disciplines.
Today, in 2025, the Cleveland Engineering Society is 145 years old. As members, it is our responsibility to ensure that between now and 2030, the year of our 150th anniversary, we don’t lose sight of that original mission and that we continue to embrace the northeast Ohio engineering community. I’ll be here and will continue to contribute, will you?