Chapter Officers and Board of Directors

Membership Info

Scholarship Info

Chapter Constitution and
By-Laws

Chapter History

Tidbits from the New England Chapter, SFPE

The birth of the New England Chapter was on May 12, 1954 when Norman E. Carlson (with Fenwal, Inc.) requested Jim B. Smith (with Factory Mutual Engineering), to develop a slate of officers for a proposed New England Chapter of SFPE. A month later on June 10th the first dinner meeting was held, the slate of candidates was elected, a constitution was approved, and both were submitted to the SFPE Executive Committee for ratification. Attendance was 21.

Chartering of the New England Chapter occurred on 5/19/1955. At this time, there were 21 paid-up members.

Norman Carlson was the Chapter's first president. (As a note of interest, Norman also served later as president of the New York, Metropolitan Chapter)

Firebrand, the Chapter's newsletter and periodical, was first published in March of 1961.

The year was 1975 and Dr. Anne Phillips of the New England Chapter received SFPE's "Fire Protection Woman of the Year" award.

April 17, 1978, the Connecticut Valley Branch of the New England Chapter split off and became a separately chartered Chapter.

On April 2, 1979, WPI student, Bob Schifiliti, spoke on " Computer Assisted Egress Analysis for the Beverly Hills Supper Club".

The New England Chapter's
A. L. Brown Scholarship Fund

In the history of the New England Chapter, there was one man, in particular, who after his retirement, strove energetically to get young people involved in the physics and chemistry of fire. It was Arthur L. Brown who would visit the heads of architectural and engineering schools to arrange to talk to engineering students about careers in fire protection. Mr. Brown was particularly active and devoted to the Chapter's Education Committee and served on it for many years.

During a Board of Directors meeting of the New England Chapter, he suffered a heart attack and despite prompt efforts to assist him, he did not survive.

Mrs. Brown requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in her husband's name to go towards education in the field of fire protection. As a result of Mrs. Brown's request, $181.00 was received. This became "seed" money as Rexford Wilson made the recommendation and the Chapter voted to establish a permanent fund in Mr. Brown's name for the promotion of fire protection education. The A. L. Brown Scholarship Fund was established in his name on November 24, 1969.

The first grant in the amount of $100 was awarded in April of 1975 to a WPI student.

Over the past 30 years, the principal of the A. L. Brown Scholarship Fund has grown to an amount in excess of $120,000.00, allowing the New England Chapter to award over $10,000 in scholarships in 1999.