Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

$1.8 Million Gift Establishes Chair, Professorship, and Scholarships in Electrical and Computer Engineering

 

A recent $1.8 million estate gift from Kirby Gray, a 1945 electrical engineering bachelor’s degree graduate, established an endowed chair, professorship, and scholarship in the College of Engineering.

“This is an incredibly generous gift from Kirby Gray,” says Keith Fortmann, assistant vice president of development for the College of Engineering. “We didn’t know about this gift in advance, but through his estate, Gray will be helping key audiences who make up the base of the university—students and faculty. It’s very exciting.”

The gift will establish the following endowments:

• Kirby Gray Chair in Engineering: The chair will be awarded to a leading faculty member in electrical, computer, or industrial engineering. The recipient of this chair will be recruited to Iowa State because of his or her success at creating knowledge or discoveries that will lead to new businesses and jobs in Iowa. The Iowa legislature shares these goals and has matched the Kirby funds with an additional $500,000.
• John Ryder Professorship in Engineering: This professorship honors John D. “Jack” Ryder (PhDEE’44), a former electrical engineering faculty member who was influential in Gray’s life. Ryder, along with former department chair Warren B. Boast, constructed the AC network analyzer in 1949 that power utilities used to simulate entire transmission and generating systems. Ryder also was instrumental in helping to design the Electrical Engineering Building (now called Coover Hall) in 1942. The professorship will be awarded to a faculty member in electrical, computer, or industrial engineering.
• Kirby Gray Scholarship: This gift is an endowment to support merit scholarships for engineering students of any discipline. The first scholarship likely will be selected this spring and awarded in fall 2009. 

Gray, originally from northwest Iowa, entered Iowa State in 1942 and joined the wartime Navy V-12 program the following year. After completing midshipman training at Columbia University and graduating from Iowa State, he was stationed at Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands of the South Pacific. Gray continued pursuing education upon returning to the United States, earning his business administration degree at Morningside College, attending the Iowa State graduate college for general engineering, and studying accounting at Northwestern University.

As a professional, Gray’s career took him across the country, working in Illinois, Texas, Colorado, and Minnesota. His job responsibilities were varied, reflecting his extensive educational experiences, and included positions in industrial engineering, cost accounting, financial reporting, and quality control; working with administrative, manual, and machine business systems; and auditing financial and computer information systems. He retired in 1986 and traveled for 10 years before joining the Green Hills retirement community in Ames, Iowa. He passed away in August 2008.

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