With sadness we report the passing of our colleague Dr. Jim Roberts of the University of Kansas who died of cancer in early September. Jim was the EE department head at Kansas when at our 1992 annual meeting in Kona, HI a group of chairs in attendance decided that a fall regional meeting should be held for those departments in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Jim hosted and coordinated the first meeting in Lawrence that fall. At that meeting, Jim was chosen to be the first Central States secretary/treasurer.

According to Rod Soukup (Nebraska-Lincoln), Jim's key ideas were that the regional group would share geographically specific problems, that it would become a unified voice in NEEDHA, and that it would encourage members to participate in the mission of the national organization. Although Jim himself never served on the ECEDHA (NEEDHA) Board of Directors, four chairs in attendance at that first meeting in LawrenceÑBill Brown, Barry Spielman, Dave Soldan, and Gerry Kane—have been elected to the Board. Prior to the formation of the Central States Regional Group, Rod Soukup and Jim Rowland had already served on the Board of Directors. In addition, Bing Chen continues the Central States tradition of service to the organization established by Jim and the other organizers of the group. The EE and ECE departments in CSEEDHA owe Jim a debt of gratitude for his vision. The regional group continues to be active and to follow the principles established under Jim's leadership.

Jim left the department chair position to be Vice Chancellor of Research and later Vice Provost at the University of Kansas. In 2007, he returned full-time to teaching and research in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science that he had first chaired almost twenty years earlier.

Jim also served as a University representative on the Board of Directors of the International Engineering Consortium (IEC) since 2000.

Jim is survived by his wife Carol, a son and daughter, and four grandchildren. ECEDHA offers condolences to them and his extended family at the University of Kansas.

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