On June 1, Morgan State University engineering school dean was the object of affection at the Baltimore Hyatt recently. While, to a casual observer, it looked the eating, drinking and speechmaking was for Eugene DeLoatch’s retirement party.
But it wasn’t that at all.
He was being cited by the Career Communications Group for staying at the job of producing engineers.
“I hope I still have life in me, when my retirement becomes official,” DeLoatch told the AFRO. He said, “I was humbled and felt very good about the honor.”
CCG produces Black Engineer Magazine, Hispanic Engineer Magazine and the Black Engineer of the Year Awards, and founded by Tyrone Taborn.
DeLoatch, 77, began his career at MSU twenty-nine years ago when he founded the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr., School of Engineering in 1984. Since then, he has spent his time producing the people who shape infrastructure.
“I’m a part of a larger team that makes up the school of engineering,” he said.
Prior to joining MSU, he spent twenty-four years of his career at Howard University, in Washington, D.C. While at Howard, for nine years, he served as the chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering.
DeLoatch simultaneously held several other key positions, including the American Society of Engineering Education, where he was the first African American at the helm. He is a member and secretary of the board of directors of the Technology and Economic Development Corporation of Maryland, a member of the Board of the Journal of Engineering Education, Chairman of the Council of Dean’s of Engineering of the Historically Black College and Universities and co-founder of the Annual Black Engineer of the Year Awards program.
DeLoatch earned his undergraduate degrees in mathematics and electrical engineering, which he earned dual degrees from Tougaloo College in Mississippi and Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. He also holds a M.S.E.E and a doctorate in bioengineering from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in New York.
“When I got out of school, there were only a few African Americans in engineering,” said DeLoatch. He said, “I was motivated to get into the university aspect of engineering to get the word out there to aspiring engineers.”
He encourages people to do what they love to do. “I tell people to do what you like and things will fall in place.” As of now, DeLoatch is “not retiring” and plans to continue to the ranks of engineers.
