Ivan Stoddard Coggeshall (A'26-M'29-F'42- LF'61) was born in Middletown, Newport, RI, on September 30, 1896. In 1951 he received the honorary D.Eng. degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA.His interest in the oceans was fostered by active duty in the U.S. Navy during World Wars I and II, and by his assignment in the Western Union Telegraph Company as Assistant Vice President, Ocean Cables. He retired from the Navy as Commander in 1957, from Western Union in 1959, and from IEEE as voluntary editor of the newsletter, Electrical Engineering, in 1972. Author of several technical papers for the Institutes, he also wrote for Encyclopaedia Britannica, and has authored a series of centennial historical essays from 1944 to 1984.
"Coggie" was President of IRE in 1951, Manager of Technical Operations on the staff of AIEE in the years before the merger in 1963, and was given IEEE's Haraden Pratt Award in 1978 for services to the Institute.