An article written by Dr. John T. Wade, PE, FPE
1929 was the year everything started for the Wade family in the engineering profession. It was the year that my grandfather, Baxter F. Wade, Sr., graduated from the University of North Carolina (UNC) with a degree in Civil Engineering. After getting married to my grandmother, they settled in the Jackson area, where my grandfather was in the engineering and construction industry until his retirement.
Since 1929, four generations of fathers and sons, plus a nephew, have graduated from engineering schools and achieved registration as professional engineers in the State of Mississippi. Ninety-five years later in 2024, my son, Dylan Wade, PE became the latest member of our family to become a professional engineer. Dylan has now placed his signature and recorded his Mississippi PE number inside the front cover of a 1929 edition of the Civil Engineering Handbook along with the rest of the professional engineers in our family..png)
I remember visiting my grandfather prior to his death in 1999. He was so immensely proud that I had graduated from engineering school at Mississippi State University (MSU). We used to sit and look through his old notes from classes at UNC in the late 1920’s as he reminisced about his time in college. I could remember working similar Calculus problems at Mississippi State in the early 1990’s like he had worked on at the UNC in the 1920’s. He handed me a stack of engineering books from the early 1900’s, and I still have his first edition Steel Construction Manual.
Headed into my fourth year as an engineer intern, I had one goal…I wanted to become a registered professional engineer before my grandfather passed away. Back then, the exams were “show your work” exams, and they were graded by hand. I took the first of two PE exams in different engineering disciplines in October of 1999. It took until late December to get the test results back. I missed my goal by a couple of months, and my grandfather passed away prior to me receiving registration as a professional engineer.
My grandfather taught my dad how to use a slide rule, and he sent my dad to school at MSU with that slide rule. When I got ready to go to engineering school, I took the same slide rule to Starkville with me, even though it was not necessary. I had a shiny new HP-48 calculator, just like all the other students of that era, but I knew how to use that slide rule. When my son attended MSU, he took that very same slide rule to school with him, and I made sure he knew how to use it, also.
I like to tell the story of how most of the engineers in my family knew Dewey McCain at MSU. My grandfather was a friend and a professional peer of Dewey McCain. When my dad attended college in Starkville, Dewey McCain was a professor in the College of Engineering and taught several classes to my dad. My son and I both took classes at MSU in the McCain Engineering Building. We all had interactions with McCain, but in quite different ways. As an interesting side note, my dad’s PE license, initially issued in 1966, is signed by the namesake of the electrical engineering building at MSU, Harry Simrall.
My grandfather, my dad, and my nephew all studied civil engineering. My son studied mechanical engineering. I initially studied mechanical engineering, but I took a little detour into graduate school for fire protection engineering. I followed up my previous registration as a Mechanical PE by taking the fire protection PE exam and passing it. According to the former director of the Mississippi Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers & Surveyors, I was the first person to take and pass the fire protection PE exam in the State of Mississippi.
My grandfather was one of the first people registered as a professional engineer in the State of Mississippi. His PE number was 575, and it was issued in 1946. Following that was my dad, Baxter F. Wade, Jr. at PE 3705 in 1966, me at PE 14461 in 1999, my nephew Preston Caldwell at PE 32769, and Dylan Wade at PE 35073.
The Wades have four generations of professional engineers, plus a nephew. We have a long history of engineering in the State of Mississippi, and it is not over yet!
Baxter F. Wade, Jr., passed away in June of 2024. He was glad to be able to see two of his grandchildren become professional engineers.