Nearly 300 alumni, parents and friends—who are Lewis Society members or returning for their reunion—turned out for the 2008 Engineering Celebration Dinner in October at the Student Life Center. Alumni in attendance covered a span of over 7 decades— from 1938 to 2008—and represented 12 classes reuniting during Reunion Weekend, and traveled from 22 states and three countries.
The event was hosted by Dean Kenneth Galloway and the Engineering Alumni Council. It was a celebration of engineering alumni, Lewis Society members, and members of the Vanderbilt School of Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni, and it provided a time to commemorate the life-long impact of a Vanderbilt engineering education.
Highlighting the evening was Dean Galloway’s presentation of the Distinguished Alumnus Award to three accomplished graduates of the School of Engineering: Donald C. Orr (BE’56), Maryly VanLeer Peck (BE’51), and William H. Rowan (BE’55, Professor Emeritus). As distinguished alumni, all three became members of the School of Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni. Earlier in the spring, Sandra Brophy Cochran (BE’80) were also inducted into the Academy at an event in Birmingham, Ala.
At the dinner, guests enjoyed the opportunity to connect with former classmates and professors. They also had the chance to interact with a small group of current engineering students.