Engineers Club of Dayton

In 1914, Charles F. Kettering, founder of Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company, and Colonel Edward A. Deeds established the Engineers Club of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio. This organization was a private club for Dayton's engineers. The city's various industries and the Miami Conservancy District employed many engineers. Kettering and Deeds hoped that the Engineers Club would provide its members with social and educational opportunities.

The Engineers Club was an outgrowth of another organization that Deeds had founded, the Barn Gang. During the early 1900s, Kettering, Deeds, and other interested parties met on Deeds's property to discuss scientific and technological issues. With the increasing number of engineers in Dayton, Deeds and Kettering decided to establish the Engineers Club.

The Engineers Club grew quickly, having sixty members by the end of 1914. Among its members were Kettering and Deeds, as well as John H. Patterson, president of the National Cash Register Company. Due to the Engineers Club's popularity, the organization built a meeting hall in Dayton in 1918. The building continues to serve as the organization's headquarters in the twenty-first century. By 1919, more than four hundred engineers belonged to the Engineers Club. During the Great Depression, membership declined, but following this economic downturn, membership soared to more than seven hundred members.

The Engineers Club of Dayton continues to exist at the time of this writing. While the organization originally included only male engineers, women were permitted to join beginning in the 1930s, and now other professions, including doctors, businessmen, journalists, and artists are among the group's members.