A mutual benefit society founded by Engineers in 1955 as the San Fernando Valley Engineers' Council (SFVEC) through the joint efforts of the California Society of Professional Engineers, the American Institute of Plant Engineers, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The Engineers' Council, as we are most often called, has annually celebrated National Engineers Week, a national week of recognition first proclaimed as such by President Eisenhower in 1950. The Engineers' Council activities have evolved from a joint meeting of societies into today's "Honors & Awards Banquet", providing funds for scholarship programs, mentoring programs, and recognition of professional engineers. These banquets honor deserving students and professionals whose accomplishments warrant public peer recognition.

The 1959 banquet was special. The first Engineer of the Year Award was given to Roy H. Marquardt, one of the most respected engineers in the San Fernando Valley. His accomplishments and technical innovations became a benchmark to measure all future candidates for this most prestigious honor.

The next milestone for the Council occurred in 1969 when the first Honorary Engineer of the Year, Ed Reineke, was selected. Over the years, a host of nationally known individuals have proudly received this award.

The "Peter Recchia Omni Award" was added to the list of major awards in 1973. This award is named for Mr. Peter Recchia, a great supporter of engineering in our community and designer of the first award. The first recipient of "The Peter Recchia Omni Memorial Award" was Dr. John J. Guarrera. This perpetual trophy is given annually to the Engineer of the Year.

Recognition of a top engineering educator began in 1982, with the "Education Achievements Award," presented to Dr. Alfonso (Rick) Ratcliffe of California State University Northridge. Over the years, the name of that award has changed and is now named the "John J. Guarrera Engineering Educator of the Year," named for longtime council member Dr. John J. Guarrera, who passed away in 2007.

It was also in 1982 that the council recognized William B. Johnson, Council founding member, for his untiring commitment to form and build the Council into a unified and effective body representing all facets of the engineering and scientific community. This award was renamed after the passing of William B. Johnson, and has been given to perpetuate the image and memories of Bill.

In 1987, General Charles E. (Chuck) Yeager was the first recipient of the "Brigadier General Charles E. (Chuck) Yeager International Aeronautical Achievements Award." This award is given periodically, with General Yeager's approval, to those who have excelled in aeronautics and flight test.

In 1991, President and CEO Lloyd Higginbotham, at the direction of the board of directors, revived the California and Internal Revenue Services recognition of our council and received a declaration as a 501-C-6, not-for-profit public benefit corporation.

In February 1993 Lockheed Advanced Development Company granted the SFV Engineers' Council the privilege of using both service marks "Skunk Works" and the stylized "Skunk" in our Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson Skunk Works Award."

One of the nominations for Distinguished Engineering Project in 1998 was of international significance, promping the council's Honors & Awards Committee to establish a new major award titled Engineering Project Achivement of the Year, which was first awarded on 1998 to the International Space Station Electric Power System. This ward was thence been bestowed on a single project in only rare and most deserving occassions since in 2002, 2005, and 2009.

In February 2006, the Jack Northrop Spirit of Innovation Award was designed with the assistance of council member Roland L. (Ron) Rogers, an engineering manager with Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems in Rancho Bernardo, CA. This award commemorates the vision, perseverance, and engineering prowess reminiscent of Jack Northrop, whose achievements and techniques broke the barriers of traditional aircraft design.

In 2007, the council introduced the Robert H. Goddard Space Propulsion Pioneer Award, given in honor of the founder of modern rocketry, and the Theodore von Karman Mission Excellence Award, given in honor of the great mathematician and academic leader.

Through the years, the SFV Engineers' Council has presented thousands of awards recognizing outstanding contributions by individuals in our community and throughout the world in the fields of engineering, education, special fields of work and public service.

More Information About the Council's Major Awards

Engineer of the Year (Our Top Engineering Achievement Award)   Past Recipients

Since 1973, the Recchia Omni Memorial Award (Perpetual Trophy) has been presented to each Engineer of the Year. This beautiful, original trophy was conceived, designed, and produced by Peter Recchia, PE, SME, AIIE. Mr. Recchia was a dedicated supporter of the engineering community and when he passed away, the Omni Award was renamed in his honor. In 2002, the award was refurbished with a new walnut base and new engraved brass plates.

Honorary Engineer of the Year(reserved for special guest speakers)   Past Recipients

John J. Guarrera Engineering Educator of the Year   Past Recipients

Since 1982, the Engineering Educator of the Year Award has been given in recognition of significant achievements by the professor in the successful involvement of students in learning, research and in the application of science and mathematics to the solution of problems in engineering design or theory. Recognition of a top educator began in 1982, with the “Education Achievements Award”. In 1985, the top educator award was renamed the “Distinguished Education Achievements Award”, which became the “Distinguished Engineering Education Achievements Award” in 1987. At the National Engineers Week Banquet of 1991, the award became the “Engineering Educator of the Year Award”. This year, in honor of The Engineers’ Council founding member John J. Guarrera, this award bestowed upon the top educator has been named the John J. Guarrera Engineering Educator of the Year Award”.

William B. Johnson International Inter-professional Founders Memorial Award   Past Recipients

In 1955 Bill Johnson was one of the founders of the San Fernando Valley Engineers' Council. Bill had an untiring commitment to form and build the Council into a unified and effective body representing all facets of the engineering and scientific community. His standards and professional aura were to emulate perfection and elegance. He was laying the groundwork for the younger generation to participate and enjoy the future in leading and influencing the developing international engineering community. Bill was considered the backbone of the Council. He chose giving recognition to outstanding people as a means of providing a model of excellence. The William B. Johnson International Inter-professional Founders Memorial Award was established by the San Fernando Valley Engineers' Council to perpetuate the image and memories of Bill, his leadership, methods, fortitude, standards, efforts, and achievements with compassion for others while focusing on bettering the engineering community. Selection of recipients for the memorial award reflect his image.

Brigadier General Charles E. (Chuck) Yeager International Aeronautical Achievements Award   Past Recipients

On October 14, 1947 General Yeager became the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound. He also became the first man to fly more than twice the speed of sound. He has flown 183 types of aircraft during his career and has more than 11,000 hours of flight time. During World War II, General Yeager distinguished himself in aerial combat over France and Germany by shooting down 13 enemy aircraft. He was shot down over German-occupied France but managed to escape capture with the help of the French Maquis. His subsequent assignments included; test pilot of the Nation's first research rocket aircraft, Commander of the 417th Fighter Squadron, Commander of the First Fighter Squadron, Commandant of the Aerospace Research Pilot School, Commander of the 405th Fighter Wing when he flew 127 missions in South Vietnam, Commander of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing in Korea during the Pueblo crisis, and Vice Commander of the Seventeenth Air Force after promotion to Brigadier General. His military decorations and awards include: The Distinguished Service Medal with one oak leaf duster, The Silver Star with one oak leaf cluster, The Legion of Merit with one oak leaf cluster, The Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters, The Bronze Star Medal with V device, The Purple Heart, Distinguished Unit Citation Emblem with one oak leaf cluster, and the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award Ribbon. Selection of recipients for this distinguished award reflect a lifetime career of dedication to the progress of aerospace technology.

Engineering Project Achievement of the Year Award   Past Recipients

Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson Memorial "Skunk Works" Award   Past Recipients

Clarence L. " Kelly" Johnson's achievements over almost six decades captured every major aviation design award and made him an aerospace legend. These achievements go back to the 1930s, but he may be best known for organizing the Lockheed Skunk Works in 1943. It started as a small unit of engineering and production specialists to hurriedly create, build and fly the World War II XP-80 jet prototype for the U.S. Air Force. It was the first of many of the world's most advanced aircraft to be produced by the Skunk Works under his leadership. Kelly played a leading role in the design of more than forty aircraft including the P-38 Lighting the Constellation transport, the P2V Neptune anti-submarine patrol plane, the record setting F-104 Starfighter, the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft and the SR-71 Blackbird. He received more than forty aircraft design and achievement awards and honors (several twice). Included are two Collier trophies, two Theodore von Karman Awards, the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy, two Sylvanus Albert Reed Awards and the Daniel Guggenheim Medal. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson presented him the nation's highest civilian honor the Medal of Freedom. President Ronald Reagan honored Kelly Johnson with the National Security Medal in 1983 and the National Medal of technology in 1988. Kelly was enshrined in the Aviation Hall of Fame in 1974. The Kelly Johnson Skunk Works Award is established to honor and to perpetuate his qualities, accomplishments. and standards as a model of excellence to be aspired to by future generations of engineers pioneering progress of the future.

Jack Northrop Spirit of Innovation Award   Past Recipients

The Jack Northrop Spirit of Innovation Award is awarded to commemorate the vision, perseverance, and engineering prowess reminiscent of Jack Northrop, whose achievements and techniques broke the barriers of traditional aircraft design.

Robert H. Goddard Space Propulsion Pioneer Award   Past Recipients

Dr. Robert H. Goddard was a physicist of great insight who envisioned the exploration of space and had a genius for invention. In childhood, Robert Goddard was intrigued by the chemical energy of pyrotechnic devices, and dreamed of harnessing their energy to produce propulsive power. In 1912, Dr. Goddard developed the mathematical theory of rocket propulsion as a research fellow at Princeton University, and at Clark University in 1915, proved experimentally that rockets could produce thrust in a vacuum in order to dispel the doubts of a less enlightened scientific community. A modest researcher who eschewed the public eye, he moved his research to Roswell, New Mexico, in 1930, where he built and tested liquid propulsion rockets which successfully achieved high altitude flights and demonstrated fin-stabilized flight control, and filed dozens of related patents, including gyroscopic guidance systems and multistage rockets. Dr. Goddard’s developments spawned the rocket industry that put the first Americans into space and the first humans on the Moon, and his legacy lives today in those who followed his pioneering work.

THEODORE VON KÁRMÁN MISSION EXCELLENCE AWARD   Past Recipients

After making significant contributions to the sciences of mechanics, structures, fluid dynamics, and aeronautics in his native Hungary and in Germany, Von Kármán immigrated to the United States in 1930 to lead the Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, which he had helped to design. Under his leadership, the laboratory was a vital resource to the emerging Southern California aerospace industry, thrusting Caltech to national pre-eminence. In 1933, Von Kármán founded the United States Institute of Aeronautical Sciences to continue his theoretical research on fluid mechanics and supersonic flight, and in 1944 he established the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech. The first person to receive the National Medal of Science, Von Kármán’s theoretical aerodynamics and work in rocket research has shaped both scientific and political history.

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