Legacies: Walter J. Barrett

Walter J. Barrett (LF) has been named the recipient of the 1975 Haraden Pratt Award, honoring his many years of professional society activity.

The award citation reads: “In recognition of Walter J. Barrett’s long and dedicated service to the engineering profession and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers as Director and President of both AIEE and the United Engineering Trustees, and particularly for his dynamic leadership in planning and in organizing financial support for the new United Engineering Center and in locating its distinguished site, the Board of Directors confers this award which appropriately recognizes a man who served so well and ardently at all levels in his professional society.”

Born in 1899, Mr. Barrett was graduated in 1920 from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now the Polytechnic Institute of New York).  Following graduation, he joined the Operation and Engineering Department of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in New York City, and remained there until 1930, when he transferred to the Engineering Department at the New Jersey Bell Telephone Company, Newark, NJ.  He retired in 1961.

As a member of AIEE, Mr. Barrett was one of the organizers of the New York Section’s New Jersey Division (which later became a Section) and served as New York Section chairman.  From 1949 to 1960, he was on the AIEE Board of Directors, as Director, Treasurer and President, and Past President.  In 1951-61, he was also AIEE’s representative to the United Engineering Trustees (UET).

He served as president of UET in 1955-57.  In 1952, he had proposed that the Founder Societies join in a drive to raise money for a new headquarters building and, following much discussion of details, agreement was finally reached.  By his last term as president, construction was underway.

Mr. Barrett’s other honors include the Polytechnic Alumni Award in 1960, the Allan R. Cullimore Medal of the Newark College of Engineering (now the New Jersey Institute of Technology) in 1961, the New Jersey Society of Professional Engineers’ Professional Engineering Award in 1962, and the National Society of Professional Engineers Award in 1964.

A member of both NSPE and the NJSPE, he is a registered professional engineer in the state of New Jersey.