Fred Stark Pearson, the AIEE, and Transnational Engineering in the Early 20th Century

Fred Stark Pearson was a remarkable electrical engineer who, by the time he died at the age of 54, had engineered and built some of the world's great power, lighting, and traction companies in South America and other foreign countries. Pearson was a member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineer (AIEE), and many of the engineers he employed in his enterprises were AIEE members. Moreover, Pearson sponsored and enrolled many of his staff in Mexico and Brazil as associate members, and he encouraged project engineers to write articles for major journals. In spite of his enthusiasm for the AIEE, Pearson was shunned by the organization in 1915. A long lasting feud between Pearson and the editor of Electric World, T.C. Martin, an executive member of AIEE, may have been the source of resentments.