Georgia Tech Alumni Association - History

History

See also: History of Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech was founded in 1885 and opened in 1888, and the first two graduates matriculated in 1890. Attempts at forming an alumni association had been made since 1896, until a charter was applied for by J. B. McCrary and William H. Glenn on June 28, 1906 and was approved two years later by Fulton County on June 20, 1908. The organization published its first annual report in 1908, but was largely dormant due to the pressures of World War I. The organization played an important role in the 1920s Greater Georgia Tech Campaign, which consolidated all existing alumni clubs and funded a significant expansion of Georgia Tech's campus.

In 1923, the alumni association created one of its most popular programs, an alumni placement service. In 1932, the service was reorganized and run by Dean George C. Griffin and Fred W. Ajax until budget cuts returned forced the program's return to the alumni association in 1949. The alumni association's placement service is now known as "JacketNet Jobs".

In 1947, prompted by the Georgia Board of Regents' critical lack of funding for the school, the association organized the annual Alumni Roll Call, which asked graduates to donate according to their ability; the fundraiser continues to this day. The association won numerous awards for the performance of the Roll Call from the American Alumni Council; this included the organization's highest award, the Alumni Service Award, in 1967 for the development and operation of the Joint Tech-Georgia Development Fund.

Also in 1947, the association polled all existing alumni on whether the school should change its name from the Georgia School of Technology to the Georgia Institute of Technology; the alumni voted 5,113 to 1,495 in favor of the change, a result that Georgia Tech president Blake R. Van Leer took to the Georgia Board of Regents to convince them to allow the name change. The alumni association (and association president Fred Storey in particular) was influential in the finding and selection of Georgia Tech president Edwin D. Harrison in 1957.

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