Construction Club honors six lifetime achievement winners

The UW Construction Club honored several people with lifetime achievement awards at its annual banquet in April. The awards recognize individuals who have had an impact in engineering or construction and have supported student development.

The 2002 recipients

• Kenneth W. Coffman, chairman of the board of Downey, Inc., which has provided mechanical construction services for projects like the University Hospital and Clinics, the Monona Terrace Convention Center, and the Grainger Hall of Business Administration.
• J.P. Cullen, former president of J.P. Cullen & Sons, Inc., one of the nation's oldest construction firms. Money from a foundation established by Cullen provides scholarships for students attending UW-Madison.
• Milton "Milt" Lunda, owner and president of Lunda Construction, a bridge building company. The company has worked on several major projects, including bridges on Interstate 43 between Milwaukee and Green Bay.
• Joseph P. Loftus, chairman of the board of Terminal-Andrae Electric, Inc. The company provides electrical engineering services to companies throughout Wisconsin, including the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel newspaper.
• Daniel W. Mead (posthumous), who served on the UW-Madison College of Engineering faculty, retiring in 1932. He died in 1948. Mead pioneered the practice of hydroelectric and hydraulic engineering, played a key role in the development of the field of civil engineering in Wisconsin, and was a staunch advocate for the importance of ethics in the field. He founded Mead & Seastone in 1900, the forerunner to Madison engineering firm Mead & Hunt. In 1936, he was named president of the American Society of Civil Engineers. The American Society of Civil Engineers honored Mead by naming its annual essay contest the Daniel W. Mead contest.
• Theodore J. Richards, president of Strand & Associates, Inc., one of Wisconsin's leading engineering firms. During his 18 years as president, the firm has grown from 55 employees to more than 250. He has long been active in the Wisconsin Association of Consulting Engineers.

The Construction Club banquet is sponsored with the help of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, its construction engineering and management program, and engineering and construction companies.