Ross T. Shoaf

Mr. Ross Shoaf, the 33rd President of ITE.  Ross was born in San Francisco in June, 1908.  He earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering degree from the University of California in 1931 and a degree in Business Administration in 1933 from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.  From 1939-40 he attended the Yale Bureau.  Mr. Shoaf's entire professional experience has been in San Francisco.

He started in 1935 as a civil engineer and in 1940 became assistant city traffic engineer for San Francisco, a post which he held until 1947.  He was with the US Army in 1945 as a highway traffic engineer (civilian).  He then became city traffic engineer for San Francisco from 1947 until 1962 and was assistant city engineer for San Francisco from 1962 until he retired in 1972.   

Mr. Shoaf was a Director from District Six from 1962 to 1963 on the national board.  He was also chairman of Technical Council from 1965 to 1967.  He was elected Secretary-Treasurer of ITE in 1969 and served as Vice President from 1969 until his election in 1971 as President to serve the 1971-72 term of office.   

Mr. Shoaf has been involved in many outside technical professional activities, being active for many years in the National Joint Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, TRB, APWA and ARTBA.  He was also President of the Western Section of ITE in 1960.   

Perhaps the most unique accomplishment of President Shoaf was his "grass roots" tour of 43 states and 9 provinces during his year as ITE International President.  He attended 77 local meetings and met many members who could not otherwise attend national meetings.  This was unique for the time and probably will remain so because it would be rate that an ITE President could retire close enough to his practice to be able to combine the two functions.   

Mr. Shoaf was also greatly interested in international activities and made many personal trips abroad.