OU Engineering

By Tom Landers Engineering education at OU has beginnings well chronicled by Dr. David W. Levy in The University of Oklahoma, A History, Volume I, 1890 – 1907. He notes that “In the Catalogue for 1901-1902 the new heading “Engineering Course” summarized the situation . . .” of engineering oriented courses available in mathematics, surveying, chemistry, and the like. The OU College of Engineering was formed in 1909 and recorded its first graduates in the spring of 1910. As we begin our 100th anniversary, we do so recognizing the dedication of those who have come before us, setting a precedence of excellence and contributing not only to who we are now but also to who we will become during the next hundred years. We look forward to celebrating this milestone in our history this academic year. Plans are still developing for events, which will culminate in the Centennial Symposium scheduled for April 21 and 22, 2010. The symposium will include stimulating panel discussions and stellar keyn

We Remember  is a special section of Encounter in which we honor the lives of the men and women in the OU engineering family who are no longer with us. If we have omitted anyone, it was unintentional. Please contact us so we can pay appropriate tribute to our alumni.  John Richards Leonard , born April 12, 1918, passed away peacefully in Houston on August 27, 2008. John was born in Parkersburg, WV, the oldest of five children. When he was five years old, the family moved to Texas, where their father was employed in the oil patch in the area around Abilene. He graduated from Merkel High School in 1936 and enrolled in the University of Oklahoma at Norman, majoring in mechanical engineering. To pay for his education, he worked full-time for the Magnolia Petroleum Company (now Exxon-Mobil) in Oklahoma City, and went to college part-time in Norman. His education was interrupted by World War II, and he entered the Army Air Corps as a Second Lieutenant in 1942. Honorably discharged in 1945 wi

I am always excited about reading a new Encounter but am especially excited about this edition. Typically, we tend to think about diversity solely as it relates to race. We may even extend those thoughts to include gender. As the current chair of the Dean's Advisory Board on Diversity, I am pleased that the articles in this special Diversity Encounter take a broader perspective of diversity as it relates to our College. Through these articles, we can view our College of Engineering through the lens of time as we look back on part of our history, as we become witnesses to what we're accomplishing today, and as we imagine the great successes that are to come. The stories illustrate the variety of academic goals and pursuits of our students in addition to how their differing paths brought them to a common place - the University of Oklahoma's College of Engineering. From the bird's eye view of this edition, there is a consistent, underlying thread from all the contributors.