Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame to Hold 2011 Ceremony

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The state of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame will induct seven individuals and honor three corporations during a Feb. 26 ceremony at the Renaissance Hotel and Spa in Montgomery.

The following individuals will join the 138 who have already been inducted into the Hall of Fame:

William J. Cutts, founder and chief executive officer of American Tank & Vessel Inc., has built a premier company with a reputation for design and product expertise. Under his leadership, AT&V has become a key player in the worldwide market for steel tanks and vessels and has developed a reputation for supporting its industry by mentoring young engineers.

After receiving his bachelor’s degree in industrial management from Alabama Polytechnic Institute in 1955, Cutts joined Chicago Bridge and Iron Works’ engineering department in Birmingham. From the beginning of his career, he has been a pioneer in mechanical design, innovation and production. He participated in the construction of the first LNG tank built in the United States in 1958. In 1967, he sold his first large-scale, asphalt-storage tank, and he realized he could bring his expertise to customers worldwide.

In 1982, Cutts formed AT&V, and he has grown it from a regional business into a national and international leader in the design and manufacture of steel tanks, pressure vessels and specialized structures. Cutts has built the company into an operation employing more than 250 people, primarily at the regional office in Lucedale, Miss., and the headquarters in Mobile, with other personnel deployed in regional offices in Houston, Texas; Baton Rouge, La.; Moss Point, Miss.; and Birmingham. In addition to U.S. efforts, current overseas projects represent nearly $100 million in Africa, Asia, Europe, Central and South America, and the Caribbean.

Under Cutts’ leadership, AT&V has sponsored medical and educational missions, and engineering teams have traveled to Africa. These teams have designed and constructed a school in Ghana as a sister school to Houston’s Christian High School, and they are currently constructing a second Ghanaian school as a sister school to Indian Springs Elementary School in Mobile.

Although George T. Goodwyn’s career began in the U.S. Army as an airborne combat engineer in Germany, he put his UA civil engineering degree and training to work upon his return to Montgomery as he joined Goodwyn & Williamson Bridge Construction Co. as engineer and vice president. Two years later in 1965, he formed Goodwyn Engineering Co., and within 10 years the company had grown to 17 employees. In 1975, he joined with his college friend Donald Mills to form Goodwyn and Mills Consulting Engineers, and then 10 years later, Steve Cawood joined the partnership to form the present Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood Inc. The firm is one of the largest and most successful multidisciplinary design firms in the Southeast and has seven offices in Alabama and an office in Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee.

In 2002, Goodwyn created another partnership, Goodwyn Building Co. Inc., with his son, George T. Goodwyn Jr. This company’s mission is to design, build and sell new homes.

The legacy of Goodwyn’s professional career is apparent in much of central Alabama’s infrastructure. He has built a reputation of being a good, honest and hardworking corporate citizen. Todd Strange, mayor of Montgomery, describes Goodwyn as being “one of the first to raise his hand in support of any initiative that would make Montgomery and the surrounding region a better place to live, work and play.”

In 2010, Goodwyn received the Volunteer of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award from the Volunteer and Information Center and the Junior League of Montgomery. He is the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors outstanding leadership and commitment to improving the lives of residents in the River Region. Goodwyn was instrumental in creating Leadership Montgomery with the goal of bringing leaders together to improve the city. He helped create Envision 2020, a community-driven organization that takes an in-depth look at Montgomery’s future. Goodwyn also assisted in spearheading Family Promise, a program for the homeless.

Henry Hoyt Harris has significantly contributed to national defense through his development and deployment of some of the nation’s key air defense weapon systems. A 1950 University of Alabama electrical engineering graduate, Harris spent 28 years of his career with the U.S. Army Missile Command, advancing to the top civilian position as deputy to the commanding general. During his time with the Army Missile Command, he was a member of the NATO Mutual Weapons Development Program. Harris served on the Patriot Source Selection Evaluation Board and was later appointed to the role of director of product assurance and testing for the system during the most fragile stage of its development.

Establishing the need for a man-portable air defense system, Harris orchestrated the campaign for a weapon that became known as the Stinger Weapon System. He became the first project manager and stayed with the program through the first four years of research, development and production. Stinger, a shoulder-fired missile, is an integral part of the country’s air defense plan.

Harris attained the highest rank of a career government employee, the Senior Executive Service. He received a master of science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology through an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship in 1968. In 1981, he received the Presidential Distinguished Executive Award from President Ronald Reagan. The Southeastern Institute of Technology recognized his achievements in 1986 with an honorary doctor of science. In 1988, he was named a Distinguished Engineering Fellow by UA’s College of Engineering.

After retiring from the government, Harris spent two years with the Boeing Co. as director of the High Technology Diversified Products organization. He later joined the University of Alabama at Huntsville as a senior research engineer retiring in 1999.

Lonnie G. Johnson’s enthusiasm for inventing began as a young boy. He learned from his father how to repair various household items, prompting him to create his own toys. Although he has achieved numerous awards and accolades for his work in nuclear power with NASA, Johnson is best known for his invention of the Super Soaker water gun, which has generated more than $1 billion in sales since 1990.

After earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Tuskegee University, he entered the U.S. Air Force serving as the acting chief of the Space Nuclear Power Safety Section at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, where he analyzed the NASA space system that employed nuclear power sources. In 1979, he accepted a position at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California as a member of the system-design team for the Galileo mission to Jupiter. In 1982, he returned to the Air Force and was assigned to Strategic Air Command in Nebraska, followed by a stint on the Stealth Bomber Program at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Returning to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1987, Johnson worked on the Mars Observer Project and the Cassini mission to Saturn.

During his work with the U.S. Air Force, Johnson received multiple honors, including two Commendation medals and the Air Force Achievement Medal. With his work from NASA, he received numerous achievement awards.

After receiving the patent for his water-gun invention, Johnson spent much of the 1980s seeking a company to manufacture and market his toy. In 1989, he and Larami Corp. partnered, and later that year, the Super Soaker was unveiled to the public.

Johnson is president and founder of Johnson Research and Development Co. Inc., a technology development company, and its spinoff companies, Excellatron Solid State LLC and Johnson Electro Mechanical Systems LLC. The companies are developing revolutionary energy technology.

Olin B. King started a business with two friends in the basement of his home in 1961. This business, known as SCI Systems Inc., became one of Huntsville’s largest private employers and one of the state’s largest employers. It grew under King to operate 51 facilities in 19 countries with 31,500 employees, and it became a Fortune 300 enterprise.

The company, which originated with the goal of designing and buildings satellites, quickly became a major subcontractor for NASA’s Saturn Apollo Lunar Landing Program and several missile and launch vehicle systems. During the Vietnam War, SCI made subsystems for military aircraft, which were later applied to commercial aircraft. SCI began making computer terminals for IBM in 1976 and personal computers for IBM and other large companies in 1981. King and his company built electronics for the Voyager spacecraft, which remains an operative pioneer in outer space today.

Prior to King’s retirement from SCI, the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and had annual revenues of more than $8 billion. Since his retirement, he has remained active in the development of industrial facilities in the Huntsville area.

In 1984, King was named Executive of the Year by the National Management Association. He was elected to the Alabama Academy of Honor in 1988, and, in 1998, he was selected as Alabama’s Chief Executive Officer of the Year by the Birmingham News. King was inducted into the Alabama Business Hall of Fame in 2000. A 1953 graduate of North Georgia College and State University, he has received honorary doctorates from the university systems of Alabama, Georgia and South Dakota.

At 101-years-old, Jack W. MacKay’s lifelong enthusiasm and dedication to the profession drives him to remain a practicing engineer. MacKay is considered a pioneer of cast iron and steel pipe, and the field would not be where it is today without his efforts.

MacKay earned two bachelor’s degrees from the Capstone: aerospace engineering in 1935 and civil engineering in 1936. He began his career with American Cast Iron Pipe Co. in Birmingham, where he served for 39 years. During World War II, he was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Engineer Reserves, but he was released from active duty as being essential to industry. He designed two, 30-inch diameter cupolas and two 42-inch diameter cupolas for the production of artillery shell molds and grenades.

After the war, MacKay played a leading role in the development and expansion of ACIPCO’s steel casting facilities, the acquisition of the steel-pipe plant, and the company’s entry into the ductile-iron-pipe field. He invented, patented and named the American Fastite joint, which became the company standard joint for pipe and fittings in the water and waste-water industries. When he retired in 1975, he was vice president of sales, secretary and a member of the board of directors and the board of management.

MacKay is a published author on steel, cast iron and ductile pipe. In 1956, he received the American Water Works Association National Distribution Award. He served as president and board member of the Alloy Casting Institute and as chairman of the Cast Iron Pipe Research Association’s public relations and advertising committees. He was recognized as a UA Distinguished Engineering Fellow in 1988.

After retiring from ACIPCO, MacKay served as vice president of NTW Tire Co. until 1982. He has worked as an engineering consultant for Caldwell-MacKay, his son’s company, since 1981. He remains a licensed professional engineer in the state of Alabama.

From the buildup and launch of the space shuttle to the planning effort for the International Space Station, Richard G. Smith’s expertise guided numerous NASA programs for many years. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Auburn University, Smith joined the rocket research and development team at Redstone Arsenal. In 1960, he joined NASA when the development operations division of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency became the nucleus for the establishment of the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center.

Serving in positions of increasing responsibilities, Smith played various roles in the former Guidance and Control Laboratory and in the Systems Engineering Office prior to being appointed deputy manager and later manager of the Saturn program. In 1974, Smith became director of science and engineering and was named deputy director of Marshall Space Flight Center later that year. Four years later, he was named deputy associate administrator for Space Transportation Systems for NASA in Washington, D.C.  In 1979, Smith was named the third director of the John F. Kennedy Space Center, where he oversaw the launch of 25 shuttle missions.

Smith received the NASA Medal for Exceptional Service in 1969 and the NASA Medal for Distinguished Service in 1973 for his contributions to the Apollo lunar landing program and the Skylab program. In 1980, he received NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal for his management of the Skylab re-entry program and was awarded the rank of meritorious executive in the Senior Executive Service. He was awarded honorary doctorates by the Florida Institute of Technology in 1981 and by Auburn University in 1983.

Honored in the corporations category:

The Power Systems Development Facility leads the United States’ efforts to develop coal-based-power-plant technologies that are cleaner, less expensive and more environmentally acceptable. Established in 1995, the facility is a unique research and development center designed to test, evaluate and accelerate the deployment of advanced coal-based power system components and technologies. As an engineering-scale-demonstration facility, the PSDF studies advanced coal-fired power systems and high-temperature, high-pressure gas-filtration systems. The facility is designed at a size large enough that system components can be evaluated and assessed in an integrated fashion to provide data for commercial scale-up.

When compared with the costs of building stand-alone facilities for each of the technologies used at the PSDF, construction at this single site has saved more than $32 million. The PSDF is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Southern Company, the Electric Power Research Institute, and other companies and organizations across the energy sector. The facility, located in Wilsonville, employs 124 full-time Southern Company and Alabama Power personnel. There are 172 other positions filled by construction labor brokers and other subcontractor employees.

The PSDF developed the Transport Gasifier, which was selected for commercial deployment through the Department of Energy’s Clean Coal Power Initiative. The PSDF and the Department of Energy’s private-public collaboration efforts introduced the Transport Integrated Gasification, or TRIG, process to the commercial marketplace. The first U.S. commercial application of TRIG, in Kemper County, Miss., will lead the way to lower-carbon electricity production. The 582-megawatt Mississippi Power plant is expected to begin operation by 2014. In China, the Dong-guan TMEP Facility will add TRIG to an existing gas-turbine-combined-cycle plant so that it can use clean, synthetic gas from coal as its fuel for generating electricity rather than fuel oil. The plant will prove that TRIG offers an effective solution to China’s energy needs.

The Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility impressively meets and exceeds its challenge of safely destroying the chemical weapons stockpile at the Anniston Army Depot. While working with deadly substances and weapons, the disposal facility has successfully eliminated 99 percent of the risk to the public from the depot’s stockpile of 4.5 million pounds.

Storage of chemical weapons at the Anniston Army Deport, one of eight continental Army sites, began in 1963. Prior to the beginning of disposal operation in 2003, the depot stored more than 7 percent by agent weight of the total U.S. chemical weapons stockpile, which consisted of more than 2,200 tons of nerve and blister agents in more than 661,000 chemical weapons. As of November 2010, the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility has safely destroyed more than 90 percent of the sensitive, lethal compounds and munitions, some of which are more than 50-years-old. Employing more than 900, the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility’s yearly operating budget is more than $160 million.

Implemented, improved and proven at Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, the Linear Projectile Mortar Disassembly machine utilizes an electro-server-driven pick-and-place robot to move munitions to individual stations in a more efficient manner, as opposed to using traditional hydraulic systems. The Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility was also a key player in developing and implementing the Static Detonation Chamber, which will allow the United States and other countries to safely destroy chemical and conventional munitions without impact to the environment. The SDC reduces the safety risk of processing over-packed or leaking munitions.

A world-class, carbon-steel-processing facility and engineering marvel in Calvert, ThyssenKrupp Steel and Stainless USA will provide high-quality products for customers in the automotive, construction, pipe and tube, service and appliance industries. While protecting the environment and displaying a high regard for safety, the $4.6 billion project has created infinite opportunities for Alabama.

The enormous complex covers 5.6 square miles with seven million square feet under roof. The facility includes a state-of-the-art river terminal, a rail terminal, a hot strip mill, a cold-rolling mill, a wastewater treatment system and four hot dip-coating lines. By the time the plant is fully operational, it will process 5.3 million metric tons of carbon steel annually, which includes 4.4 million tons of carbon steel and 1 million tons of stainless. The project is believed to be one of the largest private-industrial investments in the United States and is a rare case of job in-sourcing for the country. The complex will create an estimated 2,700 permanent jobs in Alabama when it becomes fully operational. ThyssenKrupp has invested nearly $750 million with Alabama companies, approximately $192 million with Mobile-area companies and another $1 billion with other Southeastern-based companies.

ThyssenKrupp strongly believes in protecting the environment. Throughout three years of construction, the company has been attentive to the environment by assisting in protecting wetlands, using recyclable materials and providing the highest level of energy efficiency. In addition, extra fencing was installed to protect the threatened Alabama black bear.

In 2009, the project’s safety-incident rate was less than half of the national average for a heavy-construction site. In many instances, ThyssenKrupp has instituted practices that exceeded Occupational Safety and Health Administration guidelines. Earlier this year, the company entered into a strategic partnership with OSHA designed to encourage, assist and recognize efforts to eliminate serious hazards and achieve model workplace safety and health practices.