Building on nearly a 50-year tradition of leadership, education and service, the Fort Worth Chapter of ASHRAE is an integral part of the HVAC and R industry in Texas and the nation as a whole.
Up until 1956, Forth Worth member ASHAE (American Society of Heating and Air Conditioning Engineers) had been assigned to the Dallas Chapter of ASHVE (American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers). These members decided it was time to create a Fort Worth Chapter of ASHAE. The Fort Worth Chapter became the seventh in Texas and the 67th in society in 1957.
1958 marked a turning point in the history of the Chapter and Society. ASHAE and ASRE (American Society of Refrigerating Engineers) began negotiations to merge the two organizations. A prospectus plan of the merger was given to the Chapters for consideration and discussion. Regional Directors polled their Chapters in October 1958, and in December the merger was approved and ratified, establishing the combined name of ASHRAE, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers.
Local decisions and activities kept the Chapter busy during this eventful year. Under then President Tom Romine, the Chapter christened the monthly newsletter, “The Therm”, and hosted a special fall meeting of the sixth Region Chapters of ASHAE. Other Chapter officers included Jess Mattox, Vice President; Curt Zahn, Secretary; and Gerald Smith, Treasurer.
The 60’s, 70’s and 80’s brought to the Chapter significant growth in the areas of membership, scope, reputation and participation on Region VIII and society. The 46 past Presidents have garnered presidential awards of excellence, membership awards, education awards and history awards as evidenced by the award banner displayed at teach Chapter meeting. Joe Romine, W.O. Kelly III, D.W. Gipson, Charles Wedemeyer, and L.R. “Rush” Klein, Jr. have each guided the Chapter into the “Winner’s Circle”, with attainment of the coveted Region VIII Golden Gavel Award. Charles Phillips and D.W. Gipson also lead the Chapter into the top ranks of society in total P.A.O.E. points.
Past Presidents W.O. Kelly and Art Giesler have been nominated for the Lincoln Bouillon Membership Award for their efforts. Emil Friberg, Tom Romine Al Utesch and D.W. Gipson have been honored with the Membership Grade of Fellow for their outstanding contributions to society. The Regional Award of Merit has been awarded to Emil Friberg, James R. Blanke (twice), and Al Utesch. During the 1989-90 society year, Tom Romine was presented with a Presidential Citation for “Conspicuous Distinction in the Arts and Sciences of Heating, Ventilating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration”.
Chapter Year 1991-1992, under the able leadership of President Gerald G. Maloney, P.E., brought the following results: The Chapter was seventh in Region Eight, and twelfth in society in P.A.O.E. points. Meeting attendance March 18, 1992 was a record high of 119 people: 80 members, 37 guests, and 2 student members. The meeting was a tour and question/answer period at Alliance Airport American Airlines Maintenance Facilities. Past President, Emil E. Friberg was named Engineer of the Year by the Fort Worth Chapter T.S.P.E. for the Year 1992. Dr. T.J. Lawley was named Engineer of the Year by American Society of Mechanical Engineers 1991. During the Chapter year, three members were awarded lifetime membership: Chuck C. Black, Bull Hulsey, and Dan N. Reid. Past President, Harold James, was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation by society for services rendered as Regional Vice Chairman for Refrigeration. Charter members Sim T. Lake and Grant H. Johnson, both deceased during the Chapter year, will be remembered.
The big event of the 1992-1993 year was a trip to the Super Conducting Super Collider Site in Waxahachie. Ninety-four members and guests were in attendance.
Tom Romine received two awards at the CRC meeting. In San Antonio, he received the 1992 Journal paper Award for his article entitled “Cooling and Load Calculation: Art or Science?” This award consists of a citation and an honorarium. Tom was also selected by ASHRAE Board of Directors based on recommendations of the honors and awards committee to receive the Distinguished Service Award.
In June 1992, the Fort Worth Chapter had obtained 6165 P.A.O.E. points.
The ASHRAE Year 1993-1994 will go down in history as the year the Fort Worth Chapter took the “bull by the horns” and decided to deviate from the standard ASHRAE practice of following the MBO approach in favor of A TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT. Starting in December 1993 and culminating with an action item at the CRC in Shreveport, the A TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT idea was passed on as an answer to declining attendance and interest in ASHRAE.
In March of 1994, 19 Fort Worth ASHRAE members journeyed to Wichita Falls, TX where a joint meeting was held at the Magic Aire facilities. Five area members attended in addition to 65 guests. Fun was had by all those attending.
Mr. Tony Ullrich received his 50-year membership certificate at the September Chapter meeting.
The 1994-1995 ASHRAE year for the Fort Worth Chapter exceeded every expectation. This was the first full year using Total Quality Management philosophy. Meeting time was change from evening to lunch with tremendous success. Programs were sponsored by local engineering firms, who either arranged them or presented them. Attendance improved 45% in a short time. Engineer attendance went from and average of 8 up 17 and is still increasing. Enthusiasm is at a high.
The 1995-1996 year was special because the first annual “Jack Thompson Memorial Award for Chapter Leadership” was presented to President Jim Hall at the CRC in Lubbock. This will be presented each year to the most outstanding president in Region VIII.
In 1996-1997, the Fort Worth Chapter joined with the Engineering Department at TCU and SMU, IEEE, ASCE, AIAA and TSPE in presenting a program of interest to everybody. “Regional Skills for the Technical Professional” was the title and it was well attended. This is to become an annual event. In March of 1997, the chapter annual road trip went to United Electric in Wichita Falls with Emil Friberg speaking on the subject of Indoor Air Quality. Twenty-seven new student members were added at UTA.
In 1997-1998, Bob Bittle at TCU along with Michael Pate at Iowa State won an ASHRAE Technical Paper Award for their paper “A Theoretical Model for Predicting Adiabatic Capillary Tube Performance with Alternative Refrigerants”. The Fort Worth Chapter raised money for research by co-sponsoring a seminar with UTA. The title was COMChek and explained a computerized means to evaluate a commercial building envelope compliance with the building code provision based on ASHRAE Std. 90.1. The second annual TCU Engineering Lecture was again co-sponsored by the Fort Wroth Chapter along with many other engineering trade chapters.
In 1998-1999, Don Hardin and Zahid H. Ayub were awarded the ASHRAE Distinguished Service Award, and Charles V. Chenault was awarded the ASHRAE Distinguished Fifty Year Member Award. The third annual TCU Engineering Lecture was “Something Old, Something New, Significantly Borrowed, into the Blue: American’s Aerospace Heritage and the Foreign Connection”. The Fort Worth and Dallas Chapter co-sponsored a seminar at UTA called “Design of Ground Source Heat Pumps for Commercial Buildings”. The Chapter took two plant tours in March: one at the Miller Brewery and one at the Vetrotex CertainTeed plant in Wichita Falls.
The Chapter Year of 1999-2000 was a good year for the Fort Worth Chapter with John Rhodes at the helm as Chapter President. Three of our members received Life Member status, Emil E. Friberg, P.E., Joe T. Romine, P.E., and Donald A. Decker, P.E. Our Research Promotion Chair, Judith Tribble, P.E., raised the bar for future Research Promotion Chairs. Judy’s hard work resulted in a new High 5 and a new Challenge Goal. The Chapter received a Gold Ribbon for History and a Full Circle award for contributions to ASHRAE Research by the Chapter Officers. Mike Clepper received an award for the Outstanding Region VIII Student Activities Chair. Thomas Romine, P.E. received the Distinguished Member Award from the Society.
Lead by Chapter President, David Hoelke, during 2000-2001 the Chapter developed a web site and established an infrastructure to use electronic notification and communication to the membership. Cody Pace, Andy Rhineford and Mike Clepper Student Activities Committee, worked hard to reactivate the Student ASHRAE Chapters at University of Texas at Arlington and involve students from Tarrant County Community College. The Chapter worked hard to provide quality meetings to help members grow professionally and encourage Chapter participation.
Chapter year 2001-2002 under the stellar direction of Les Brown saw the Chapter change the location for the monthly meeting to the Petroleum Club, atop the Carter-Burgess Plaza tower. This change helped provide a significant boost in the average meeting attendance. The chapter held a very successful seminar taught by ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer, Gil Avery, entitled “Improving the Efficiency of Chilled Water Plants”. One Chapter meeting included a tour of the physical plant for the Bass Performance Hall In addition to its Annual Golf Tournament, the Chapter held its first Annual Sporting Clay Shoot, as a fundraiser for Research Promotion. Harold James received the Regional Award of Merit.
The Chapter Year 2002-2003 was led under the capable direction of Buddy Pace. The 2003 CRC was hosted by the Fort Worth chapter. The Chapter did an outstanding job of coordinating and conducting the Conference. A 4-hour seminar was also held to educate the area engineers on the new 90.1 requirements. The Chapter won multiple awards at CRC. More than 50% of the chapter’s membership was compiled on a master e-mail list. In addition to the annual golf tournament and sporting clays shoot a 2nd golf tournament was held. Committees were expanded to include multiple people. Chapter member Bernie Warren, deceased during the Chapter year, will be remembered.
2003-2004 for the Fort Worth Chapter was a year full of activity led under the able leadership of Mr. Gary Fields and the Board of Governors. The fall golf and sporting clays tournaments gave an early boost to the chapter’s efforts in resource promotion. Collectively, the chapter hosted many events contributing to another fantastic year of fundraising for the newly named resource promotion. The year was also filled with some interesting lunchtime topics including Ted Carnes’ presentation on “HVAC Sound, not noise”, Julian de Bullet’s discussion on chilled water plant efficiencies and Eric Francis’ presentation on “Energy Savings through the use of VSD’s”. January’s meeting was somewhat different in the fact that it was an evening meeting. Mr. Clay Paslay of DFW Airport gave an intriguing presentation on the economic impact of DFW Airport as well as the new Terminal D. To add to the chapter’s goal of providing a “Learning Experience” to its members; the chapter hosted a seminar on the “Fundamentals of Water System Design”. The seminar was completely booked and was praised by the students as a very informative class. In addition to the fundamentals class, the chapter put on a seminar covering ASHRAE’s Standard 90.1, an important topic that concerns many of those in the HVAC industry. The chapter’s newsletter, The Therm, was completely redesigned to meet some of the changing needs of the chapter and to add to the overall appearance. The chapter’s website has become a more useful tool for the chapter thanks to the technical expertise of it’s Webmaster, Mr. John Rhodes.
2003-2004 was also a year for recognition of the hard work and dedication for the volunteers of The Fort Worth Chapter. The chapter received several awards at the Chapter’s Regional Conference in Tyler. In addition to the chapter’s many accomplishments that were recognized at CRC, Dr. Robert Bittle received a patch for the chapter’s awards banner recognizing him for his nomination for the Milton Garland Refrigeration award. On a more local note, Mr. LeRoy R. Klein received Life Member status. Overall 2003-2004 was a great year for The Fort Worth Chapter, which will hopefully carry over into another and another, and so on. See you next year.
During the 2004-2005 year the chapter was lead by Chapter President Cody Pace with the help of the other chapter officers John Maryak President – Elect, Rick O’Conner Treasurer. Due to unexpected job change the Secretary had to withdraw from the position, fortunately Sid Ellis volunteered to step into the position of Secretary. Three of our members received Life Member status, John O’Kelley, William Moody, and Fred Rehfield. Buddy Pace as well as the chapter received several awards for resource promotion, some of which were the Full Circle award, High 5 Certificate and the Top 5 in Society for Dollars per Member. 2003-2004 President, Gary Fields received a Presidential Award of Excellence. The years Resource Promotion consisted of a fall golf tournament, a sporting clays tournament as well as a chapter sponsored 8 hour pump seminar with all the proceeds supporting Resource Promotion. As a result of the hard work of the Membership Chairman Garrett Brown our new membership increased by 4 percent. Due to ASHRAE Society’s decision to combine the Programs and TEGA committees into the Chapter Technology Transfer Committee the Board of Governors and chapter Officers were required to update the chapters by laws. The new Chapter Technology Transfer Committee will be responsible for Chapter Programs, technology transfer to and from Society, technology transfer to and from Government entities, and for the review and submittal of technical awards for region and Society competitions. Kevin Fox, the Programs Chairman worked hard to up hold the Chapters continued tradition of providing quality technical presentations during the chapter meetings. Some of the more note worthy meeting consisted of the January meeting which was a joint meeting between the Fort Worth and Dallas Chapters held in Arlington, with ASHRAE Society President Ron Vallort, P.E. as the speaker. A few other note worthy meetings were the February meeting, which was titled “CSI’s New Specifications Classification System; Understanding the New Format”, the speaker was Ellen Crews, and the April meeting which took place at DFW Air Port with a tour of the new Central Plant. Tony Finch, Student Activities Chairman, continued his hard work of building up the local ASHRAE student chapters by setting up a booth at the UTA Engineering Week.
For Chapter year 2005-2006, the Chapter was under the direction of President John Maryak. A major event occurred near the Region VIII area that would dominate the news and affect our region and industry, directly and indirectly. On August 28, 2005 one of the deadliest storms in the history of the United States, Hurricane Katrina, caused devastation along much of the north-central Gulf Coast of the United States. This tragic event displaced hundreds of thousands of people and at least 1,836 people lost their lives. The rebuilding efforts are still ongoing. On happier notes, there were three opportunities for ASHRAE members to get some sun this year, the Sporting Clays Tournament, the Golf Tournament and at the CRC. The Sporting Clays Tournament was a 5-person Team Scramble and was held at Rock Creek Range. The Golf Tournament was a 4-person Florida Scramble and was held at the beautiful White Stone Golf Club in Benbrook, Texas. Richard Skipper and Nabeel Mahmood were awarded with the ASHRAE life member award and John Higgins, Jr. received his Fifty-Year Member certificate. The ASHRAE Christmas party was held at the Petroleum Club and had a great turnout of 48 people. The past President’s Meeting was held at Los Vaqueros and the keynote speaker was baseball legend Mr. Bobby Bragan. Mr. Bragan is a Fort Worth Baseball Legend and was kind enough to sign some baseball memorabilia and donate the articles to Fort Worth ASHRAE. The CRC was held in Cancun, Mexico and our Chapter was well represented (I think the location had a direct correlation with the attendance).
Chapter year 2006-2007 was lead by President Sid Ellis. The major push for this year was to organize the Chapter History. Historical documents such as the original Chapter Charter and a photograph of the attendees of the first CRC held in Fort Worth were placed in picture frames with UV reflecting glass. The Chapter History display was electronically recorded into a Power Point Sideshow Presentation. The CRC was held in Oklahoma City, OK. ASHRAE Society President Terry Townsted spoke on the ASHRAE promise: “A Sustainable Future”. In April, at the CRC, our Chapter and several of our members received awards. John Rhodes received the Regional Award of Merritt and the Chapter Service Award. Don Hardin received the Chapter Service Award. John Maryak received a PAOE certificate and a 2005-2006 Honor Roll Patch. Cody Pace Received a Full Circle Award for 2005-2006 and a paper weight for top 5 dollars per member for research. The Chapter also received a silver ribbon for research and our Chapter had 14 Fort Worth members in attendance.
Under the leadership of Rick O’Connor, and the consistent guidance of The Board of Governors, ASHRAE – Fort Worth, in 2007-2008, was able to celebrate its 50th year anniversary in style. Promising a great year; we established excellent programs and events. Technical programs such as: “Fundamentals of Air Side System Design” (By Garrett Brown) provided avenues to help mold the future of this industry’s engineers. Our Industrial tours took us on a tour of the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, simply amazing! The social events this year tested our golfing prowess and patience (as always) while providing us an afternoon of fun. The holiday celebrations rang in the new year with a bit of magic in the air, performed by Dave Elliot. We continued our educational endeavors by providing scholarships to students at University of Texas at Arlington; meanwhile our members also volunteered their time to the Future Cities Competition, further developing our future engineers. To help us look ahead towards the future, we reaffirmed our knowledge of the past. Beginning this year, the ASHRAE – Fort Worth Archives will be centrally located inside the main branch of the Fort Worth Public Library in “Downtown Cowtown.” We would like thank our many members who have preserved the history of this chapter under desks, on shelves, behind walls, and many other nooks and crannies throughout the years. To all the understanding bosses and spouses: “You’re welcome!” This past year has helped us all create and recall many fond memories. Until next year.
Daniel C. Merkel
Chapter Historian
2007-2008
