A Brief History of ITE Ozarks Section
The Ozarks Chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (OCITE) was chartered by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) on February 5, 2003 with 21 charter members and currently has over 90 members representing Traffic and Transportation Engineers, Roadway Designers, Planners, System Operators along with Education, Enforcement, and Safety specialists in southwest Missouri.
The Ozarks Chapter was the second chapter chartered within the Missouri Valley Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (MOVITE). Other chapters in MOVITE include: TEAM Chapter (St. Louis), KCITE Chapter (Kansas City), CMITE Chapter (central Missouri), LOCATE Chapter (Lincoln/Omaha/Council Bluffs), OTEA Chapter (Oklahoma), ICITE Chapter (central Iowa), and CKITE (central Kansas). MOVITE, was chartered in 1951 with only eight members and now has over 600 members from the states of Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. MOVITE along with the Illinois, Wisconsin and North-Central Sections comprise Midwestern District of ITE.
Due to a restructuring of how ITE viewed organizational hierarchy of its Chapters, Sections, and Districts, OCITE no longer met the definitions of a Chapter. Thus, in 2020, OCITE was restructured into OSITE, short for Ozarks Section of ITE, and later known as the ITE Ozarks Section following a 2025 rebranding of the broader ITE organization.
The Ozarks Chapter was the second chapter chartered within the Missouri Valley Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (MOVITE). Other chapters in MOVITE include: TEAM Chapter (St. Louis), KCITE Chapter (Kansas City), CMITE Chapter (central Missouri), LOCATE Chapter (Lincoln/Omaha/Council Bluffs), OTEA Chapter (Oklahoma), ICITE Chapter (central Iowa), and CKITE (central Kansas). MOVITE, was chartered in 1951 with only eight members and now has over 600 members from the states of Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. MOVITE along with the Illinois, Wisconsin and North-Central Sections comprise Midwestern District of ITE.
Due to a restructuring of how ITE viewed organizational hierarchy of its Chapters, Sections, and Districts, OCITE no longer met the definitions of a Chapter. Thus, in 2020, OCITE was restructured into OSITE, short for Ozarks Section of ITE, and later known as the ITE Ozarks Section following a 2025 rebranding of the broader ITE organization.
A Brief History of ITE - A Community of Transportation Professionals
The rapid development of automotive transportation following the First World War and the resulting accidents and congestion in the early 1920s were responsible for public demands that expert attention be directed to alleviating traffic ills. During this period, a few individuals recognized the value of engineering approaches in dealing with many aspects of highway transportation problems. Men with engineering training and experience worked with distressed municipal officials in seeking palliatives for accidents and congestion, mainly concentrating their work on traffic regulatory devices and roadway design and re-design. At various national and regional conferences called for discussions of traffic problems, this ever-growing group of technicians was brought together so that by the late 20s, engineers interested in highway traffic work were well acquainted.
The desirability of forming a professional society was freely discussed whenever a few of them happened to get together. Thoughts for such a society were crystallized at a meeting in Pittsburgh on October 2, 1930. At this meeting, tentative drafting of the Constitution and Bylaws for a professional traffic society was accomplished by a small group of men who were actively engaged in the battle to reduce accidents and facilitate traffic movement. The major reasons for creating an organization were to provide a central agency for correlating and disseminating the factual data and techniques developed by members of the profession, promote the standards of traffic engineering, and encourage the establishment of traffic engineering departments in city and state governments whose techniques should make for safer and more efficient highway transportation. Constitution and Bylaws were adopted at a meeting in New York on January 20, 1931, and the Institute of Traffic Engineers became a reality.
The Charter membership consisted of 30 people. The first Officers were Ernest P. Goodrich, President; Miller McClintock, Vice-President; and Hawley S. Simpson, Secretary-Treasurer.
The legal name of the organization was updated in 1975 to the Institute of Transportation Engineers to reflect the evolving nature of the profession. This change recognized a shift from a primary focus on traffic management—such as signals, signs, and road design—to a broader, more comprehensive approach to transportation systems. Over the decades, ITE members expanded their expertise to include multimodal planning, sustainable mobility,
emerging technologies, and equity considerations, reflecting the profession’s growing emphasis on the movement of people and goods rather than just vehicles.
The legal name continues to be held to date. However, the organization transitioned its brand name to ITE—A Community of Transportation Professionals in 2025 to balance the desire to maintain the identity built up through the organization’s long history while ensuring that the organization’s name reflects an inclusive home for all transportation professionals, including engineers, planners, consultants, educators, researchers, technologists, and students.
ITE Founders
Learn more - ite.org/about-ite/history
The desirability of forming a professional society was freely discussed whenever a few of them happened to get together. Thoughts for such a society were crystallized at a meeting in Pittsburgh on October 2, 1930. At this meeting, tentative drafting of the Constitution and Bylaws for a professional traffic society was accomplished by a small group of men who were actively engaged in the battle to reduce accidents and facilitate traffic movement. The major reasons for creating an organization were to provide a central agency for correlating and disseminating the factual data and techniques developed by members of the profession, promote the standards of traffic engineering, and encourage the establishment of traffic engineering departments in city and state governments whose techniques should make for safer and more efficient highway transportation. Constitution and Bylaws were adopted at a meeting in New York on January 20, 1931, and the Institute of Traffic Engineers became a reality.
The Charter membership consisted of 30 people. The first Officers were Ernest P. Goodrich, President; Miller McClintock, Vice-President; and Hawley S. Simpson, Secretary-Treasurer.
The legal name of the organization was updated in 1975 to the Institute of Transportation Engineers to reflect the evolving nature of the profession. This change recognized a shift from a primary focus on traffic management—such as signals, signs, and road design—to a broader, more comprehensive approach to transportation systems. Over the decades, ITE members expanded their expertise to include multimodal planning, sustainable mobility,
emerging technologies, and equity considerations, reflecting the profession’s growing emphasis on the movement of people and goods rather than just vehicles.
The legal name continues to be held to date. However, the organization transitioned its brand name to ITE—A Community of Transportation Professionals in 2025 to balance the desire to maintain the identity built up through the organization’s long history while ensuring that the organization’s name reflects an inclusive home for all transportation professionals, including engineers, planners, consultants, educators, researchers, technologists, and students.
ITE Founders
- W. Graham Cole
- Ernest P. Goodrich
- Maxwell N. Halsey
- Harry H. Hemmings
- Reyburn P. Hoffmann
- John F. Hurley
- Arthur N. Johnson
- Guy Kelcey
- Miller McClintock
- Lewis W. McIntyre
- Donald M. McNeil
- Burton W. Marsh
- Theodore M. Matson
- Irving C. Moller
- Earl J. Reeder
- Joseph G. Regan
- Ladislas Segoe
- Hawley S. Simpson
- Peter J. Stupka
Learn more - ite.org/about-ite/history
