Despite the on again off again tempo of merger, the joining of AIEE and IRE was an idea whose time had come. Duplication of staff and extra expense to members made merger a must. The difficulties were first overcome on college campuses where student branches of both societies began to join together. In 1950 the Boards of both societies authorized the Joint Student Branches.

On the national level efforts at closer cooperation continued. In 1956 John D. Ryder and Morris Hooven, presidents of the IRE and AIE, respectively, met at the Engineers Club in New York and worked out a reciprocal membership plan where a single dues payment to one society entitled membership at equivalent grade to both societies. The plan was approved by the IRE in 1955 and later by the AIEE. In 1958 AIEE President L. F. Hickernell and IRE President D. G. Fink worked out additional arrangements that were not immediately implemented.

In January 1961 the IRE past president was invited to attend an AIEE board meeting where he described the organization and philosophy of the institute. He was followed by AIEE President Clarence Linder who made a similar appearance before the board of the IRE. A joint ad-hoc committee was then formed to implement the merger, and by October 1961, the IRE Board authorized its president, P. E. Haggerty, to present the AIEE with a resolution on merger.

The vote on the merger in 1962 resulted in 87 percent approval by voting members in each society. Donald J. Fink, a Fellow of both the AIEE and IRE, was chosen as general manager of the new Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. On January 1, 1963, the IEEE was officially born.

The organization followed the IRE pattern, with a small Board of Directors, an Executive Committee, Technical Committees, and a general decentralization after the IRE plan.

The merger resulted in the demise of two publications, the AIEE Electrical Engineer and the IRE Proceedings of the IRE, and the birth of the IEEE Spectrum as the new "core" publication with Proceedings remaining as a high quality technical journal available by separate subscription.

In 1973 the IEEE became a "professional society," concerned not only with the advancement and dissemination of knowledge, but also with the non-technical interests of its members, such as Portable Pensions.

On January 1, 1990 the IEEE was 27 years old and has become the largest professional organization in the world with almost a quarter of a million members. It is international in scope and remains, as it was a century ago for the AIEE and IRE, the premiere spokesman for the most significant and exciting technological field of its time.