75th

Anniversary Communications and Events Plan, 2010

When it first opened its doors in 1935, the Russ College was named the College of Applied Science.

Since its development, over the last 75 years, the college that was once referred to as the College of

Applied Science has changed in so many ways. In 1963, it became the College of Engineering

Technology and remained that for almost 25 years.

It was after an $8 million endowment by electrical engineering alumnus, C.Paul Stocker to help transform

a former residence hall into over three acres of lab, office and classroom space, that the College of

Engineering and Technology was no longer. In 1985, and the college’s 50th anniversary, faculty, staff and

students moved into the new five-story facility, the C. Paul and Beth K. Stocker Engineering and

Technology Center. This new facility housed all seven departments of engineering: Aviation, Chemical

Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Industrial and Technology,

Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering.

In 1994, the Board of Trustees renamed the college once again, The Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ College

of Engineering and Technology. This time, it was in honor of Dr. Fritz J. Russ, an electrical engineering

graduate in 1942, and his wife, Dolores. The Russ’s established the Russ Professorships in 1982, which

award for undergraduate scholarship and excellence in teaching and research. They also established the

Russ Prize in 1999 which recognizes a bioengineering achievement in widespread use that improves the

human condition. The cash award of $500,000 is awarded biennially.

Alumni has been too generous over the years and has contributed to the development of research centers

that have become nationally and internationally know. Richard McFarland helped the Avionics

Engineering Center, the only of its kind and largest at Ohio University, in 1963

The newest development for the Russ College is the Academic Research Center that opened in 2010. The

center, shared with the College of Osteopathic Medicine, was designed to encourage the exchange of

ideas through collaboration and teamwork.

The Russ College of Engineering and Technology may have been through several changes over the past

75 years, but it hasn’t forgotten its purposes and goals—to make it possible for the students, faculty and

staff to learn through one another, never limit what they can achieve, have knowledge at their fingertips

and for the faculty, as well as the students, to be proud of what they can do.

SITUATION ANALYSIS