Presentation of PE License Certificates/Order
of the Engineer Ring Ceremony
Maryland Society of Professional Engineers
Engineers Club – Baltimore, Maryland
23 September 2014
Comments as Presented
One of my first events as the new, NSPE Executive Director a year and a half ago was attending this very
ceremony. It was an appropriate and meaningful orientation to the community and organization I had
just become part of, reminding me of something very important, and something lying at the very core of
the national society and its network of state and local affiliates.
Graduating was an achievement, which I heartily congratulate you on.
Passing your EIT and PE exams was an achievement, which I heartily and sincerely congratulate you on.
For those of you who elected to go above and beyond what was strictly required of you for licensure by
becoming a part of the Order of Engineers, you are also to be congratulated on going the extra mile.
You have all achieved something rare and important. Less than 10% of the 4 million people working in
the engineering professions have accomplished what you have: achieving the status of licensed,
professional engineer.
Your personal achievement is great.
And while you have been focused on these personal goals, you have been understandably and probably
obsessively focused on what you needed to do to achieve them:
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Taking the right courses.
Passing the right test.
Serving the right internships.
Checking off all the boxes in a formidable checklist of requirements that you needed to
challenge yourself to achieve.
But as great as these personal accomplishments are, there is something even bigger at stake here.
You have become a part of something much bigger and more important.
How do we answer the question, what separates a professional engineer from the 3.6 million others
who work, and who, for the most part, certainly work with distinction in the field of engineering but
who do not hold a license? And why is it so critical to do so?
In the last quarter of the 19th Century, engineering first seized the imagination of the American public
through a series of staggering, engineering achievements:
Presentation of PE License Certificates/Order of the Engineer Ring Ceremony
23 September 2014 – Mark J. Golden, FASAE, CAE
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1869: The final spike was driven in the transcontinental railroad, uniting the east coast with the
west.
1882: Thomas Edison lit up several blocks of lower Manhattan with the first electrical grid
distribution system.
1883: The Brooklyn Bridge opened to the public.
In the first decade of the 20th Century, the speed of engineering developments continued to accelerate:
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1903: The Wright Brothers first flight
1908: The birth of the automotive industry with the Model T Ford
It was the birth of an age of rapid scientific and engineering development that has not slowed or looked
back since.
But who held those who promoted themselves to the public as engineers accountable? Perhaps
ironically, it was something as mundane as irrigation that provided the tipping point for state
intervention over this question.
It was in the state of Wyoming that an unlikely state bureaucrat stood up for the public interest and first
established engineering as a licensed profession. In 1903, at the height of the rush to claim and control
newly opened lands to the nation’s West, a man named Clarence Johnson stood up to the prospectors
and developers, including Buffalo Bill Cody, who were seeking to stake claim to Wyoming state water
resources for irrigation purposes. Lawyers, notaries and others untrained and unqualified to do so, were
preparing and filing the plans for reservoirs, canals and streams needed to ensure a secure and safe
water supply. Four years later, the first registration law was passed and the first licensing board in the
United States was established.
Bringing sense, order and credibility to a profession that touched every aspect of every citizen’s life was
a noble and worthwhile endeavor … but it also meant so much more.
In 1928, the failure of the St. Francis Dam along the Santa Clara River just north of Los Angeles killed
more than 500 people. California’s registration law and state board of examiners soon followed.
In 1937, more than 300 people, many of them children, died when a gas leak led to an explosion at a
school in New London, Texas. The leak was traced back to faulty engineering performed by unqualified
persons. The Texas State Board of Engineering was created a few months later.
The first President I worked for at NSPE was wont to comment that “Doctors bury their mistakes one at
time; engineers bury our mistakes by the truckload.”
About the time state registration was becoming recognized as a critical feature of government
regulation, and almost three-quarters of a century before the buzzwords “public/private partnership” or
“P3” became fashionable, a parallel effort was also underway. Visionaries in the engineering profession
recognized that government action alone was not enough. Inconsistency of engineering licensing
standards from state to state was a problem. And something more than mere legalistic enforcement
was necessary to advance the profession and protect the public.
Like a lot of great causes and great organizations, the start can be traced back to one man or woman
who not only saw the need, but took the action necessary to set things in motion.
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Presentation of PE License Certificates/Order of the Engineer Ring Ceremony
23 September 2014 – Mark J. Golden, FASAE, CAE
That idea was for an inclusive, nontechnical organization that would be dedicated to the interests of all
licensed professional engineers, regardless of practice area.
That would protect engineers (and the public) from unqualified practitioners, build public recognition
for the profession, and stand against unethical practices and inadequate compensation.
That man is David Steinman.
In May of 1934, Steinman brought together the leadership of four state engineering societies and
offered a vision of how, united, they could all be made better.
By September of that year, the National Society of Professional Engineers was officially formed and
Steinman was its first President.
Within a decade, prior, existing state organizations or new state affiliates had been formed in half the
states and were part of the organization. The Maryland State Society was established in 1939. All states
were represented by 1960.
Professional licensure was the crown jewel of the enterprise
At the time of NSPE’s formation, fewer than half the states had enacted registration laws.
Exercising engineering-like efficiency, the new federation had completed the job of passing licensure
laws in all fifty states by the time it was celebrating its 25th anniversary.
But it didn’t end there.
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NSPE created its first code of ethics in 1946;
It launched National Engineers Week in 1951;
Published its first salary survey in 1952;
Created the Board of Ethical Review in 1954;
Created its first “practice division” in 1956;
Awarded its first engineering scholarships in 1958;
Conducted the first, national MATHCOUNTS competition in 1984;
And I am just skimming the surface here.
Promoting, protecting and advancing the professional license remains an always important, but never
accomplished goal.
And whenever I refer to NSPE, I very specifically mean more than just the national component. From its
very first days, NSPE was a fully integrated, three-tiered cooperative of national, state and local
societies.
As far as we have come, with the establishment of the PE licensing system, it is not enough. The horror
stories that first led to the establishment of registration laws are not a relic of our past.
On January 28, 1986, as the Space Shuttle Challenger broke up over the Atlantic Ocean 73 seconds into
its flight. Morton Thiokol engineer Allan McDonald looked on in shock. The night before, he had refused
to sign the launch recommendation over safety concerns. As Director of the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket
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Presentation of PE License Certificates/Order of the Engineer Ring Ceremony
23 September 2014 – Mark J. Golden, FASAE, CAE
Motor Project for the engineering contractor Morton Thiokol, he was concerned that below-freezing
temperatures might impact the integrity of the solid rockets' O-rings.
His professional intervention was ignored. The launch went ahead, with tragic consequences. He
suffered a period of personal and professional retribution as the very interests that had ignored and
overruled his engineering judgment scrambled to find a scapegoat. But he did the right thing.
[Incidentally, any of you who will be in Seattle this July for NSPE’s annual meeting will have an
opportunity to hear McDonald. He is one of our keynote speakers.]
In 2010 the Deep Water Horizon oil platform exploded in the gulf of Mexico, killing eleven and causing
the largest environmental catastrophe in our history.
And even today, we are shocked to read about the deaths and injuries from GM’s faulty ignition
switches.
None of these cases were caused by evil intent.
No one set out to endanger, maim or kill.
But that was the result.
These are the kinds of mistakes that can be made even by good and well-intentioned people … like
you….like me … who take their eyes off the ball or become distracted by other concerns.
And that will always be the danger unless there some one involved in the enterprise who is paying
attention to more:
More than just the project schedule.
More than just the plan.
More than just the budget.
Someone who possess more than just the technical competence and skill.
Someone who does more than just follow the letter of the law.
Someone who understands they answer not to the company that employs them, but to the health,
safety and welfare of the public.
And that someone is you.
Sociologist Émile Durkhelm wrote that "Where mores [cultural values] are sufficient, laws are
unnecessary; where mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable"
Former U. S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said, "Rules cannot substitute for character"
As newly licensed engineers, you need to recognize that this license is something more than the state
granting you permission to perform certain kinds of work. Being in the profession requires something
more of you.
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Presentation of PE License Certificates/Order of the Engineer Ring Ceremony
23 September 2014 – Mark J. Golden, FASAE, CAE
As newly licensed engineers, you need to recognize that your education is not ending … it is only
beginning.
Don’t look at the continuing education requirements you will face as an arbitrary system of points you
need to earn for bureaucratic purposes … look at them as your continued investment in the lifelong
learning you will need in order to honor your duty and obligation to that public trust.
For our part, NSPE and its network of state and local societies pledge to be with you every step of the
way.
And we recognize that, as you advance through the different stages of your career, your needs and even
your preferences over how to engage in your professional society will change.
Early in your career, when building a network, education, mentoring and direct, personal interaction is
most important, the emphasis will be on your state or local chapter.
As you advance in your career and in the profession, and become increasingly aware and concerned
about matters of professional practice, ethics and advocacy, and opportunities to be of service and to
give something back, the nexus of engagement will shift to national.
This dictates a more productive and effective collaboration between NSPE and its chapters.
For our part we hope you will join and be a part of NSPE --- national, state and local --- and of the
technical society that serves the knowledge needs specific to your specialty.
For our part, NSPE is committed to remaining relevant, valuable, and supportive to you at every stage of
your career.
We truly believe that, as a community, your NSPE family can be of help to you.
That you need us in order to be all that you are capable of becoming as a professional engineer.
We certainly recognize how much we need you.
But even if you never choose to join or be active in your professional society, remember the sacred trust
you have entered into this evening.
The Babylonian ruler Hammurabi (1800 BC) was perhaps the first arbiter of professional construction
standards. He decreed:
“If a builder erects a house for a man and does not make its construction firm. And the house which he
built collapses and causes the death of the owner of the house. That builder shall be put to death.”
We have come a long way from such an “eye for an eye” form of professional standards. But never
forget that as long as you are engaged as a professional engineer, you will always fall under the
obligation of the creed you have recited tonight:
To give the utmost of performance;
To participate in none but honest enterprise;
To live and work according to the laws of man and the highest standards of professional conduct;
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Presentation of PE License Certificates/Order of the Engineer Ring Ceremony
23 September 2014 – Mark J. Golden, FASAE, CAE
To place service before profit;
the honor and standing of the profession before personal advantage;
and the public welfare above all other considerations.
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