Although the Los Angeles Port Engineers were officially chartered on October 2, 1946, the Port Engineers of the various steamship companies had been meeting informally for several years. They shared many common problems, so it was natural that they would get together to exchange ideas and help each other. For example, during the war years, multiple and often conflicting inspections were required by the War Shipping Board, the American Bureau of Shipping and the Coast Guard. This made work difficult for the Port Engineers, to say the lease, so they banded together to discuss the problems and to try to get more cooperation from those groups.

Ross Marble, reporter for the Log (and later founder of Mayday Magazine), was traveling up and down the Coast and was in close touch with each of the local ship building communities. When the San Francisco Society formed in February 1946, Ross reported the event and encouraged a similar move by the Los Angeles-Long Beach group. He went so far as to set up a special meeting at the Virginia Country Club, and invited a group of the San Francisco Port Engineers down to help with the “official chartering’.

The first officers were: President, Paul Gaudin; Vice President, Leonard Landers; Secretary-Treasurer, George A. Robinson. At first, the society consisted of Port Engineers only, but others were allowed to attend the meetings. (Some shipyard executives, in fact, were expressly invited and expected to pay the dinner bill.) But with the war over there were massive layoffs at the shipyards, and the number of Port Engineers in the harbor dropped dramatically. The membership in the Society was gradually opened up in order to keep the group alive. First Chief Engineers were admitted, then anyone with a Marine Engineers license, and finally in 1951 the membership was opened up to associate members, meaning vendors. 

The Society of Port Engineers remained important as a forum for discussing problems in the industry and also for the introduction of new technological developments. The marine paints industry, for example, introduced many new products and procedures, many of which were shown and discussed at the meetings. The meeting places have been numerous in the harbor area; The Lafayette Hotel, The Star Cafe, The Persian Room, The Fireside Inn, The Tasman Sea, the Princess Louise and most recently the Ports O’Call Restaurant in San Pedro. 

The Society has changed in some ways over the years, and the membership has alternately risen and declined, but it has always represented those in the harbor who were serious about the business of ship repairs. The Port Engineers Family Picnic has been a tradition right from the start, and in recent years there has been increased emphasis on other social activities as well, but business comes first for these people. Weekends or evenings mean nothing when that ship has to sail. 

What often has to be explained to outsiders is that the society of Port Engineers is not just the Port Engineers themselves. One does not have to be a Port Engineer to be a member or to make an important contribution to the group. The business at hand is the efficient and economical operation of the ships, which requires the close cooperation of not only the Port Engineers but also the shipyards, machine shops, electricians, divers, government agencies, unions, suppliers of parts, paints, chemical, etc., etc., etc., in order to meet that end. The Society of Port Engineers represents the professional in the business of ship operations.