Six Honored as UA Distinguished Engineering Fellows

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama College of Engineering recently honored six alumni and friends of the College by inducting them into its class of 2002 Distinguished Engineering Fellows.

James C. Bambarger, Norm Harris, John (Jack) H. Horn Jr., John W. Lewis, Kay Y. Wallace and Colgan H. Bryan were selected for the top honor the College bestows.

James C. Bambarger is CEO and chairman of the board of TTL Inc., an environmental consulting, geotechnical and testing firm in Tuscaloosa. He has also served as project engineer, project manager, geotechnical engineer and geotechnical consultant for the company. Among his projects are several UA sites, including Bryant-Denny Stadium, the Shelby Hall Interdisciplinary Science Building, the Bruno Business Library and the Sewell-Thomas Baseball Stadium. He graduated from UA in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and in 1992 was inducted as a UA Department of Civil Engineering Outstanding Fellow. A registered Professional Engineer, Bambarger is a native of Fairhope and now lives in Eutaw.

Norm Harris is one of the seven founders of ADTRAN, a supplier of innovative telecommunications projects. He designed and developed new products that led to five patents for telecommunications design and helped lead the company to its debut on NASDAQ. Harris, who graduated from UA in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, has served as ADTRAN’s on-campus recruiter at the University for more than 10 years. Prior to his work with ADTRAN, he worked with Universal Data Systems, where he was a senior design engineer in the high-speed modem development group. His contributions and innovations ranked him as one of the top design engineers at UDS. He is now in semi-retirement, but he continues to mentor and direct many elements of ADTRAN’s engineering processes. A native of Tuscaloosa, Harris resides in Huntsville.

John (Jack) H. Horn Jr. specialized in marketing, sales, operations and strategic planning for numerous projects during a 30-year career with the Coca-Cola Co. He served as director of various divisions for more than 16 years and was responsible for ensuring over $3.5 billion in sales. He became group information systems director, a position in which he was responsible for all information system products and services supplied to the Coca-Cola Co. Corporate Headquarters Division. He retired from the company in 2000. Prior to his time with Coca-Cola, he served as senior operations research analyst at Lockheed-Georgia Co., where he implemented the dynamic programming model. Horn received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial engineering from UA, in 1965 and 1966, respectively. Originally from Louisville, Ky., Horn was raised in Birmingham and graduated from high school in Florence. He now resides in Marietta, Ga.

John W. Lewis received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from UA in 1942 and then served three years in the U.S. Navy before he joined Dixie Fire Brick Co. in Birmingham as its assistant plant manager. In 1949, he became vice president, a position in which he oversaw the company’s merger with A. P. Green Refractories in 1965. He continued to serve as vice president until his retirement in 1982. Currently, he devotes his time to serving as a consultant with the Waste Reduction and Technology Transfer Foundation (WRATT). A non-profit company, WRATT is composed of retired engineers, scientists and managers who provide free assessments of businesses, schools and industries to help with waste reduction. Lewis resides in Birmingham, where he serves as chairman of the Volunteer Motor Services of the American Red Cross, and for the past 18 years has delivered blood to Birmingham area hospitals for the organization.

Kay Y. Wallace received her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from UA in 1981 and earned a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University. After eight years with Dow Chemical Co., she managed the start-up of the Georgia Research Alliance, a strategic partnership among Georgia’s six research universities. She spent three years as deputy chief operating officer of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. She then joined the Coca-Cola Co. as the director of learning strategy in sub-Saharan Africa. Today, she serves as president and founder of Effective Solutions, an Atlanta-based firm that offers executive coaching and strategy development, as well as pro bono consulting to non-profit organizations. A native of Tuscaloosa, Wallace resides in Atlanta, Ga.

Colgan H. Bryan is professor emeritus of aerospace engineering and mechanics at UA, having taught at the University for 60 years. He came to UA in 1942 to instruct and coordinate a World War II on-campus training program for American, British and French pilots. He became head of the aerospace engineering department in 1952 and served in that position until his retirement in 1980. Although retired, he still teaches part-time. Bryan received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of South Carolina in 1932, a master’s in physics education from Duke University in 1940, and a master’s in aeronautical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1948. He is a registered Professional Engineer and has provided consulting in aerodynamics for NASA, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army Missile Command. The National Society of Professional Engineers named him its 1986 Engineer of the Year. A native of Trenton, S.C, Bryan resides in Tuscaloosa.

Note to the Editor: Photos to accompany this release are available from Janice Fink at jfink@coe.eng.ua.edu.