Speaker: Bill Dick
The Scientech Club has been presenting programs since 1918. Our historian, Bill Dick, will highlight some of the history of how we started and the impact that the club and our members have had in Indiana and in the nation. His talk will include items from both our early history and our more recent history.
Scientech Club Emeritus member Bill Dick is a retired physician whose work was recognized by Mayor William Hudnut with a Key to the City in 1989. He is a former president of the club. He received a Sagamore of the Wabash award in 1990.
Program: A Brief History and Highlights of the Scientech Club
Speaker: Bill Dick, MD (retired), Scientech Club member and Club historian
Introduced By: Bill Halsema
Attendance: NESC: 71, Zoom: 24
Guest(s): Ben Blakley, Bren Boulais, Theresa Minton
Scribe: Bill Dick
Editor: Carl Warner
Talk’s Zoom recording found at: https://www.scientechclubvideos.org/zoom/02092026.mp4
Scientech Club History – 1918-2026
It began as an idea from someone, but we don’t know who, to combine multiple engineers and similar scientific clubs into one. It happened on 30 Dec 1918. The following day, the Indianapolis Star had an article about the meeting, which took place at the Athenaeum Club. There were 104 charter members, including D.J. Angus, Eli Lilly and Elwood Haynes. There was nothing like it in the nation. The name Scientech Club was chosen from seven offerings that night.
It has met weekly (mostly on Mondays) ever since. A bell rang at the beginning and end of the weekly meetings, and members were introduced. In the early days, quite a bit of time was spent organizing the club, and in preparing position papers for the Mayor of Indianapolis and Governor of Indiana. A couple of booklets were also produced.
In the mid 1920’s the club began hosting talks and showing educational movies. Meetings were held at number of sites throughout the years. After a stay at the Children’s Museum, it moved to Northside K of C (now Northside Events) in 2009. The first dues were $5 yearly and the lunch cost was $0.50. The rates are much higher now, of course.
Membership was only 51 members during the Great Depression, but it bounced back to 141 in the 1940’s. Many members contributed their engineering skills to the WW II effort. The 40th Anniversary Dinner was held in 1958. In 1961, participation in the local science fair took place. In 1967, the Scientech Foundation (formerly the D.J. Angus Scientech Educational) was begun. It awards scholarships and monies to scientific groups, high school and college students in the scientific fields. Nearly $180,000 is given each year.
The first woman member was Virginia Wenning in 1980. The first woman president was Barbara Frantz in 1995. The club is administered by a president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer and a 20-person board. The first roster generated by a computer occurred in 1984; the History Booklet was produced in 1988. It has been updated since and is current.
In 2006, the roster went electronic – a big improvement. The small web site was expanded. The newsletter, begun in 1920, was placed on a city web site which contains city clubs, schools and services. All the newsletters are included, making Scientech the second largest entity on the site. On the Scientech Web Site, a list of all talk subjects and speakers is included, along with all newsletters. Presentations from 2006 are listed.
It is difficult to summarize 107 years of Scientech history, with 45 talks and tours yearly. We now have over 300 members. Weekly attendance averages 100 at Northside Events, with 35 additional viewers on Zoom. We all enjoy learning!
Bill Dick
