Alumni news

Three CEE alumni honored on 2002 ENGINEERS' DAY, Oct. 18

Jerome J. Mullins (10K JPG)

Jerry Mullins' education in civil engineering didn't just lead to a career in constructing buildings, it also led him to become one of Madison's most prominent figures in building design, construction supervision and ownership.

After a career in the United States Navy Air Corps during World War II, Mullins graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BS degree in civil engineering in 1950. Mullins then joined General Engineering Company in Portage, Wisconsin, and worked on municipal engineering projects such as schools, sewers and streets. Only six years out of engineering school, he joined Weiler & Strang Architects/Engineers where he was in charge of the firm's structural engineering and construction coordination activities for eight years.

In I964, he formed his own consulting engineering firm, now known as Jerome J. Mullins and Associates, and has been making local history ever since. He has been sought out as an engineer and developer for his structural creativity, ingenuity and cost-effective engineering services. Many of the Madison area's most prominent developers and every level of government, from the federal government to towns and villages, have hired his firm to design or supervise construction of their projects. Jerry's biggest client, however, is Madison's largest private real estate owner: himself. He owns both commercial and residential property in the Madison area, including the Inn on the Park hotel and a new downtown office building at 22 E. Mifflin St.

A registered professional engineer in Wisconsin, Mullins has been a director of Downtown Madison, Inc. since 1976. He is also a member of the National Board of Realtors, the National Construction Specifications Institute, and the Wisconsin Society of Professional Engineers. He has served on many community boards and has received numerous awards and honors for his engineering work and community service.

Mullins and his wife, Carol, have been married for 53 years. They have five grown children: Maureen, a physician; Brian, an engineer and attorney; Mallory, an attorney; Brad, a business executive; and Jay, a professional engineer.

Robert E. Pitt (20K JPG)

When there's a storm, Robert Pitt is less interested in what's falling from the sky than he is in what happens to that precipitation once it hits the ground.

An expert in stormwater management, Pitt has worked on lake-management and environmental research projects, hazardous material management plans, facility location studies and environmental assessments for 30 years. The beneficiaries of his findings include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environment Canada, Ontario Ministry of the Environment, and local and state governments.

Pitt, who earned a 1987 PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in civil and environmental engineering, received his bachelor's degree in engineering science from Humboldt State University, Arcata, California, in 1970; and master's degree in environmental and hydraulic engineering from San Jose State University in 1971.

He began his engineering career with URS Research Co. and Woodward Clyde Consultants in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a senior engineer, he directed air- and water-quality groups involved in regional environmental management plans and contingency planning for hazardous material spills. In 1979, he and his family moved to Wisconsin, where they lived on and operated a sheep farm and Pitt continued work as an environmental engineer and consultant.

After he earned his PhD, Pitt began a teaching career at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Now a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa, Pitt has taught more than 100 workshops (many with Engineering Professional Development) and seminars worldwide and is also the author of six books and numerous training manuals and research reports.

A member of the Water Environment Research Foundation's Stormwater Advisory Board, Pitt is a diplomate of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers.

Pitt and his wife, Kathryn, have been married 35 years and have two children, Brady and Gwen. He has been a Boy Scout leader and he and Kathryn enjoy working around their Birmingham, Alabama, home and traveling throughout the country.

Kenneth Wright (37K JPG)

Kenneth Wright's professional interests have taken him from the depths of reservoirs to the heights of Peru's Machu Picchu.

Wright serves as chief engineer and chief financial officer of Wright Water Engineers, Inc., of Denver, a company he founded in 1961.

His company does the engineering work in the design of water-related systems: water delivery, wastewater collection and treatment, drainage and flood control, pipelines, dams and reservoirs, and wetlands restoration.

It does it so well, and with such a strong sense of ethical business service, that Wright Water Engineers received one of the nation's most distinguished business ethics honors in 1999. The company received the Society of Financial Service Professionals Ethics Award, one of only three such awards bestowed annually by the organization. The award came three years after the company was honored with the Colorado Business in Ethics Award.

Last year, the American Society of Civil Engineers honored Wright Water Engineers with its Civil Engineering History and Heritage Award.

Wright has long taken an interest in the history of civil engineering, and both he and his company have acquired an international reputation for their research into ancient Native American and South American water resources. Last year, Wright wrote a book published by the American Society of Civil Engineers titled, "Machu Picchu: A Civil Engineering Marvel." He has published more than 100 articles for civil engineering publications and manuals during his career.

Wright graduated from UW-Madison with both a BS degree in civil and environmental engineering and a BA in marketing in 1951. He went on to receive a master's degree in civil engineering in 1957 from UW-Madison.