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We recognize ERC's birthday on March 16, 1988. Why? That is the day that ERC Founder and Chairman,
Dr. Y.C.L. Susan Wu, boldly left the security of her professorship at the University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI)
in Tullahoma, TN to go to work full time as Chairman and CEO of a company that had no employees and no business base.
An entity known as Engineering Research and Consulting, Inc. was actually established in 1977 by Susan, her husband,
Dr. Jimmy Wu, and Dr. Ahmad Vakili. The three UTSI professors formed the company to provide engineering consultation
services to large aerospace and defense firms in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But by 1988, the company was dormant and
had no business. Susan took over and renamed the company "ERC, Incorporated." People routinely ask us, "What does
ERC stand for?" It doesn't stand for anything - the name is not an acronym.
If you knew Susan and her life story, her decision to take on the challenge of building an
engineering firm from nothing would not surprise you. Susan was born in Beijing, China in 1932. At that point in
history, China was not a safe or desirable place to live, with the presence of both a civil war and Japanese
occupation. These conditions led Susan and her family to move to the eastern coast of China when she was eleven.
Four years later, the family moved to Taiwan when the civil war intensified between the government and the communists.
While in Taiwan, Susan finished high school and earned a BS degree in engineering.
When Susan was in the 8th grade, she had vowed that she was going to become an engineer and remedy China's struggles. Unfortunately, by the time she received her engineering
degree in 1955, China was under Communist control and there was no real opportunity for her in China. So Susan and her
future husband Jimmy set off for the United States of America in 1957. |  |
Susan moved to Ohio to attend
The Ohio State University, and Jimmy moved to Minnesota to attend the University of Minnesota.
Susan earned her MS in engineering in 1959, and married Jimmy. She enrolled in the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), one
of the most prestigious engineering institutions in the United States, where Jimmy was already attending. In
1963 Susan became the first woman to be awarded a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering at
Caltech. In 1965, Jimmy and Susan moved to Tullahoma, TN, where they served as professors at UTSI for nearly 25 years.
Susan remained at UTSI until 1988 when she decided to start ERC.
ERC's growth was slow, but steady for the first several years. By 1995, the company's business base had grown to over
$10M and included the Army, NASA, the Department of Energy, and the Air Force. Company headquarters was moved from
Tullahoma, TN to Huntsville, AL. In 2000, Susan suffered a stroke and decided for health reasons she needed to step
down as the Company's CEO/President. She persuaded her oldest son, Dr. Ernie Wu, to leave Harvard University where he was doing
research and take over as ERC's President and CEO. Today, Susan still serves as our Company's Chairman, Ernie serves as ERC's CEO,
and Kenny Frame serves as our President. The ERC Family now includes over 900 people and the company generates annual revenues of
over $100M.
As an engineering and scientific services company, we in the ERC Family are extremely proud to be a part of an organization
whose founding roots epitomize the American Dream, perseverance, and engineering excellence. As we move forward, we
know our company can be anything we want it to be, because we all recognize we are standing on the shoulders of a 5 foot
1 inch giant. Susan is, and will always be, the soul and inspiration of the ERC Family.
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