Alexander Lyman Holley (1832-1882), Henry Rossiter Worthington (1817-1880), and John Edson Sweet (1832-1916) are Honorary Members among the founders and can be considered the foremost organizers.

Samuel S. Webber acted as secretary. Eckley B. Coxe, General Quincy Gillmore, Jackson Bailey, Professor W.P. Trowbridge, and M.N. Forney are among the lesser known today who also worked on organizing committees. Erasmus D. Leavitt and Charles T. Porter are among the better known. Charles W. Copeland suggested the name of the society.

"Thirty of the most prominent men in American mechanical industry attended that first meeting of ASME founders in the New York editorial offices of American Machinist on 16 February 1880. They chose as chairman the brilliant consultant to the American Bessemer Steel Association, Alexander Lyman Holley, and, characteristically, he provided a focus for the gathering profession and the advantages to be derived from association." (A Centennial History of ASME, by Bruce Sinclair, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980)

On April 7 a formal organizational meeting was held at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey, with about 80 engineers. The first annual meeting was held in early November 1880. Robert H. Thurston was the first president.

Who were the others in attendance on February 16?

Stephen W. Baldwin, George A. Barnard, William Lee Church, George M. Copeland, J.S. Coon, A.B. Couch, Charles E. Emery, John Fish, Robert Grimshaw, F.F. Hemenway, D.S. Hines, Wiliam H. Hoffman, H.T.C. Kraus, Lewis F. Lyne, C.C. Newton, W.H. Odell, T.R. Pickering, Frank C. Smith, Egbert P. Watson, Samuel Webber, and Albert R. Wolff.

Other 19c Honorary ASME Members

Note: Honorary membership was restricted at first to members who had retired from active practice.

Horatio Allen, elected 1880 (1802-1889)
Sir Benjamin Baker, 1886 (d.1907)
Johann Bauschinger, 1884 (d.1893)
Sir Henry Bessemer, 1891 (d.1898)
Sir Frederick J. Bramwell, 1884 (d.1903)
Gustave Canet, 1900 (d.1908)
Daniel Kinnear Clark, 1882 (d.1896)
Rudolph J.E. Clausius, 1882 (d.1888)
Sir John Coode, 1889 (d.1892)
Peter Cooper, 1882 (1791-1883)
James Dredge, 1886 (d.1906)
Victor Dwelshauvers-Dery, 1886 (d.1913)
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, 1889 (d.1923)
Sir Charles Douglas Fox, 1900 (d.1921)
John Fritz, 1900 (1822-1913)
Franz Grashof, 1884 (d.1893)
Otto Hallauer, 1882 (d.1883)
Friedrich Gustav Herrmann, 1884 (d.1907)
Gustav Adolph Hirn, 1882 (1815-1890)
Joseph Hirsch, 1889 (d.1901)
Benjamin Franklin Isherwood, 1894 (1822-1915)
Henry Leaute, 1891 (d.1916)
Charles Talbot Porter, 1890 (1826-1910)
Sir Edward J. Reed, 1882 (d.1906)
Franz Reuleaux, 1882 (d.1905)
Henri Adolphe-Eugene Schneider, 1882 (d.1989)
C. William Siemens, 1882 (d.1883)
Henri Tresca, 1882 (d.1885)
William Cawthorne Unwin, 1898 (d.1933)
Francis A. Walker, 1886 (d.1897)
George Westinghouse, 1897 (1846-1914)
Sir William Henry White, 1900 (d.1913)