The banquet was held on Thursday, February 26, in the Von Braun Center's North Hall. There were over 270 people in attendance, which was much better than in recent years. Since the IEEE was the lead society this year, the Section decided to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its formation in conjunction with the banquet.

Sonya Hutchinson welcomed everyone to the banquet and then turned the podium over to John Malone of WRSA, the Master of Ceremonies.

John Malone introduced the head table. Unfortunately, we do not have a picture of the entire head table.

From left to right: Michele & Keith Jadus and Eric Grigorian are off the left end of the photograph, Jonus Ben, Sonya Hutchinson, John Malone, William Craig, John Smith (hidden by the podium), Beverly Green, David Green, and Willie Fitzpatrick.

Willard Preussel gave the invocation before the dinner.

When people started to eat their desert, we recognized Eva Johnston, the wife of the first Section Chair, who was celebrating her 80th birthday. She was given a candle for her cake and we all sang Happy Birthday.

William Craig from the US Army AMRDEC Software Engineering Directorate gave an excellent talk spanning from the founding of the IEEE 120 years ago to today with the history of Henry, Edison and many more and he did it without any notes. He also touched on the critical need for engineering ethics.

David Green the IEEE Region 3 Secretary, and a former Section Chair, presented our 50th anniversary banner to Stephen L. Johnston, our first Section Chair, and Sonya Hutchinson, our current Section Chair.

The Huntsville sections of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, American Society for Quality, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Society of American Military Engineers, Systems Safety Society; and the University of Alabama and the UAH Engineering Student Council recognized their outstanding members.

The Huntsville Section of the IEEE presented the following awards:
Outstanding Engineer - Dennis Miller
Outstanding Educator - Dr. Bob Berinato
Outstanding Service - Keith Jadus

The Huntsville Section of the IEEE recognized the following:
Dr. Robert McMillan - General Chair of RADARCON 2003
Dynetics Corp. - Corporate support of RADARCON 2003
Patricia Griffin - General Chair of AUTOTESTCON 2002

From left to right: McMillan, Jadus, Hutchinson (Section Chair), Berinato, Griffin, and Miller

As the highlight of our 50th Anniversary celebration, gold-framed IEEE certificates of appreciation were presented to all the Section Chairs who were able to attend the banquette. We were very fortunate that or first chairman, Stephen L. Johnston, an IEEE Fellow, who is still active in the section, was able to attend.

From left to right: Haik Biglari, Billy Jones, Gisele Wilson, John Dickens, Steve McKay and Willy Albanes.


From left to right, front row: Sonya Hutchinson, Eric Grigorian, Belur Dasarathy, Will Preussel. Back row: David Green, Bill Pittman, David Trenkle (accepting for his deceased father Robert), Don Fronek and Terry Purtle.


From left to right: Jim Anderson, Don Nalley, Steve Johnston and Glen Weathers.

The regional winners of the Future City contest and the Math Counts contest were recognized.

I offer my thanks, and the thanks of the entire Section, to Dawn Creed, Frank Parish and Sharon Preussel who took the pictures that were included above.

Jim Anderson

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