The Western New York Section was formed in 1944 as the Upstate New York Section. An organizational meeting called by M.E. Holmes, then Dean of the New York State College of Ceramics, was held on January 29, 1944 at the Statler Hotel in Buffalo. In attendance were twenty-fine members of the American Ceramic Society who resided in the upstate New York area. Ross Purdy, General Secretary of the American Ceramic Society was also present. January 29, 1944 Meeting Minutes.

The first regular Section meeting was held on March 24, 1944 at the Stuyvesant Hotel in Buffalo. With about 100 members in attendance, officers were elected and bylaws were adopted. Cecil E. Bales, President of the American Ceramic Society presented the Section with its charter, (which is now in the CACT Center at Alfred University). The speaker for the evening was Dr. Hillier of the RCA Laboratories, who spoke on "The Development of the Electron Microscope and Its Possible Applications to the Ceramic Industries." March 24, 1944 Meeting Minutes.

A resolution was passed at that first meeting that the Local Section would invite the American Ceramic Society to hold its 1945 Annual Meeting in Buffalo. The invitation was accepted, but at the last minute, the technical sessions were cancelled because of the war. Instead, the Forty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Ceramic Society consisted of the Board of Trustees, Past Presidents, Officers of the Divisions and Classes, and Committee Chairmen - joined by 127 members of the Upstate New York Section "to form a quorum for the transaction of business." The Forty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Ceramic Society was in fact held at the April 16, 1944 Upstate New York Section meeting. The following year, in April 1946, the Section hosted the Forty-Eighth Annual Meeting, complete with technical sessions, at the Hotel Statler in Buffalo.

The Section was officially renamed the Western New York Section on December 1, 1967.

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