Six University of Colorado at Boulder alumni received Distinguished Engineering Alumni Awards at the 34th annual Engineering Awards Banquet on April 16.
The awards were presented by the College of Engineering and Applied Science to recognize alumni who have distinguished themselves through their outstanding personal qualities, knowledge and significant contributions to their fields. Awards were given in the categories of Government Service, Industry and Commerce, Private Practice and Research and Invention.
About 23,000 students have earned engineering degrees from the college, but few attain this honor. DEAA winners represent less than 1 percent of the total number of graduates.
Ralph J. Trapani of Glenwood Springs, a 1974 architectural engineering graduate, received the award in the Government Service category for his management of the design and construction of I-70 through Glenwood Canyon for the Colorado Department of Highways. The 12-year project was completed in 1992. Trapani is now a program engineer on the Mount Sopris Transportation Project with the Colorado Department of Transportation.
In the Industry and Commerce category, awards were presented to Thomas R. Callan, III, a 1955 civil engineering graduate, who was director of acquisition operations for Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver until his death in 1997; and to George A. Sissel, a 1958 electrical engineering graduate, who is chairman and CEO of Ball Corp., a Fortune 500 company in the aerospace and food and beverage packaging industries, headquartered in Broomfield.
Two awards also were given in the Private Practice category. Recipients
included Chester L. Karrass of Los Angeles, who earned mechanical engineering and business degrees in 1947 and 1948, and is the founder of Karrass Seminars and widely regarded as the nation's premier authority on business negotiation.
The other recipient, William F. King, III, of Skillman, N.J., is a 1974 architectural engineering graduate, and has worked with leading real estate development, construction and property management firms for 25 years in the northeastern United States. King has been involved in such high-quality projects as the Carnegie Center, a 550-acre mixed-use development adjacent to Princeton University.
Alan D. Randolph of Tucson, Ariz., a 1956 chemical engineering graduate, received the award in the Research and Invention category for his groundbreaking work in the area of industrial crystallization, an important aspect of chemical separations technology. Randolph, who has consulted for 34 companies as a crystallization and separations expert and has nine patents, taught chemical engineering at the University of Arizona for 27 years before his retirement in 1995.
The recipients were nominated by their colleagues and selected for the awards by the Engineering Advisory Council of the College of Engineering and Applied Science.