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ASCE Life Members Honored

ASCE Life Members Honored at February Meeting

At the February Meeting, the Dallas Branch of ASCE recognized thirteen 2011 Life Members of ASCE.  A Life Member is an individual who has made a lifetime commitment to ASCE and the civil engineering profession by remaining members for the full length of their professional career.

 To become a Life Member, an individual must:

• have reached the age of 65 years
• have paid dues in any membership grade except Student Member for at least thirty (30) years
• have had ten (10) years continuous membership immediately preceding the attainment of Life Member.

Why should I strive to attain Life Member status?

Life Member status exempts a member from further payment of membership dues.

The Proud, The Few, The ASCE Life Members

Nine of the 13 ASCE Life Members were present and honored at the February Dallas Branch Meeting.  Photos from this can be found here.  2011 Life Members include:

• Mike Glenn
• Ron Hurst
• John B. Jones
• Anthony P. Pavia
• Stan Reed
• Thakor J. Sheth
• Bud Smallwood
• Driskoll Tubbs
• Fred B. Vinson
• Andrew Kohl (Unable to Attend)
• Eldon Tipping (Unable to Attend)
• Milton Frank Vrla (Unable to Attend)
• Richard Alfred Westsmith (Unable to Attend)

Mike Glenn graduated from Texas Tech University with a BSCE in 1969. Shortly thereafter he began his consulting engineer career in the structural engineering department of Forrest & Cotton in Dallas for 14 years. He then became the regional vice president for Ayres Associates until 1995 when he created Glenn Engineering Corporation in Irving where he currently serves as President. He is married to Janet and has two daughters and 5 grandchildren.

John B. Jones, PE, is an entrepreneur involved in a number of businesses. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri at Rolla with a BS in engineering, the University of Southern California with a MS in systems management and the Harvard Business School, completing the Owner & Presidents Management program. Jones spent 14 years in the U.S. Army as an engineer officer, serving in Viet Nam in 1968 and1969. Other assignments included an Area Engineer assignment in Okinawa, Japan and as a Test Group Director for underground testing in the Defense Nuclear Agency. Following his Army tenure he came to Dallas to open the office of Rone Engineers and after two years started Jones & Boyd, a civil engineering firm. Other notable engineering firms that he has founded include Alpha Testing, a geotechnical engineering firm and CURA, an environmental engineering firm. Jones has started more than thirty-five companies in a variety of industries. Currently his investments include: Talis Advisory Services, Talis Financial, both providing financial services; Jones Square, providing tax consulting, book keeping and Quick Books consulting services; Cura, providing emergency management services to the transportation industry; Jones Hill McFarland & Ellis, providing real estate consulting services on large transactions; American Signs, providing signage for regional and national businesses;   United Community Bank, providing commercial banking services; Kinsman Ventures, providing real estate development services; Kinsman Equities, providing equity capital for real estate transactions; and Bridgepoint Communications, providing services to the telecommunications industry. Jones has been married to his wife Diann for more than 46 years. They have two children and five grandchildren. They have been members of Prestonwood Baptist Church for 29 years, where he has served as a Bible Study teacher, Deacon and Chairman of the Deacons

Anthony P. Pavia is a Senior Facilities Project Manager for Pioneer Natural Resources in Dallas where he manages the planning, design fabrication and installation of oil and gas facilities worldwide. He has 34 years of multi-discipline engineering, planning and developing oil and gas projects, onshore and offshore, internationally and domestically.  Project experience includes process facilities, produced-water treatment, pipelines, floating production systems, subsea equipment and offshore platforms. He received a M.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Houston in 1983; a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio in 1975; a M.S., Civil Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 1974, and a B.S., Civil Engineering from Manhattan College, Bronx, New York in 1968. Mr. Pavia served in the U.S. Army Infantry from 1969 to 1971. His professional experience includes several firms including, Triton Energy/ Amerada Hess – Houston, Texas (2002 – 2004), where he was Manager of Projects, Conceptual Development Planning; Marathon Oil Company – Houston, Texas (1984 – 1994), Production Operations Coordinator; and Getty Oil Company (1977 – 1994), where he served as Division Petroleum Engineer – Los Angeles, California.

Stan Reed, P.E., S.E.C.B., is Vice-President of Reedcon, Inc. in Plano, Texas. Reedcon (www.reedcon.com) was established in 1982 to provide structural engineering consulting projects and associated structures. Reedcon has concentrated on providing quality service in the design of various bridge projects and associated structures. Prior to his establishment of Reedcon, from 1967 to 1982, Mr. Reed owned and/or provided management and operations services for various firms, including URS/Forrest and Cotton, Inc, Bridgefarmer, Pinkerton, Reed & Associates, Inc., Gibbs & Hill, Inc., and Ellisor & Tanner, Inc. Mr. Reed graduated from The University of Texas at Arlington in 1969 with a B.S. Civil Engineering with Honors and number one in his Civil Engineering Class. In 1971, he received a Certificate of Award from the James F. Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation for design of the steel box girders for the four taxiway bridges at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. His current and previous memberships include the American Concrete Institute, ASCE National Committee #343 for the Design of Concrete Bridges, American Consulting Engineers Council, American Society of Testing and Materials, American Railway Engineering Association, American Welding Society, National Society of Professional Engineers, and the National Federation of Independent Business. Mr. Reed has project experience with numerous sanitary sewer lift stations and waste water treatment plant expansion facilities.

Thakor J. Sheth, P.E., earned a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Gujarat University, in 1969, and completed his Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from St. Louis University in 1971. As a Technical Manager for CP&Y, Inc., he is responsible for technical reviews, quality control, and quality assurance program. He has been a leader, or key participant, for a variety of water and wastewater treatment plant expansion or rehabilitation projects. Thakor served as the project manager for the planning, designing and construction phase services of an Intake Structure/Pump Station at Lewisville Lake for Upper Trinity Regional Water District and the City of Lewisville. This project utilized the offshore construction technique for the construction of the intake structure at Lewisville Lake, and won the CEC award. 

Eldon G. Tipping, President of Structural Services, Inc. (SSI), Richardson, Texas, has 38 years of experience in the design and construction of concrete floors. After founding his SSI in 1988, Mr. Tipping developed placement, finishing, and monitoring procedures that make construction of superior on-ground and suspended slabs practical. A leading authority on tolerances and construction of suspended floors, he has received several awards, including the being selected by Concrete Construction magazine in 2005 as one of the Ten Most Influential People in the concrete industry, being elected to receive ACI’s Delmar L. Bloem Distinguished Service Award for leadership of ACI Committee 302 (Floor and Slab Construction), being selected in 2006 by the Texas A&M College of Architecture to receive its Outstanding Alumni Award in recognition of outstanding leadership and accomplishments, and selected to receive the Samuel A. Face, Jr. Golden Trowel Award in 2008 for his “accomplishments in, and contributions to, the Art and Science of High Quality Horizontal Concrete Construction.” Mr. Tipping is currently a member of ACI’s Technical Activities Committee, and other ACI committee memberships include:  117 Tolerance Committee (past chair), 302 (Guide for Concrete Floor and Slab Construction-Past Chair), 360 (Design of Slabs on Grade) and 544 (Fiber Reinforced Concrete). He is the author of numerous articles in professional publications, leads educational seminars, and has spoken annually at the World of Concrete since 1991 on topics related to tolerances, construction of level suspended slab floors, and repair of industrial floors. Tipping received a BS in Architectural Construction in 1969 and a March in Construction Management in 1973 from Texas A&M University with an emphasis on structural design and management. He is a member of the ACPA, ASCE, the AISC, ASCC, ASTM International, the International Concrete Repair Institute, and the Structural Engineers Association of Texas.

Driskoll Tubbs graduated from Texas A & I in Kingsville in 1970 with a degree in General Engineering, with a Civil specialty. He worked as an Engineer Aide for Reagan & McCaughn Engineers in Corpus Christi from 1969-1970. He was employed as a Project Engineer at Dallas County from 1970 to 1973, at which time he joined Weaver Construction Company as an estimator for underground utilities. Mr. Tubbs rose to the position of vice president. The company went out of business in 1987 at which time he joined John Burns Construction Company of Texas, Inc. where he is currently employed as Executive Vice President. Mr. Tubbs served on the Board of Directors in the Dallas Chapters of both TSPE and ASCE for many years and was President of the Dallas chapter of ASCE in 1985 – 1986. He served on various committees at both chapters and was chairman of several golf tournaments on both the state and local level.  He is currently a member of First United Methodist Church in Frisco and is leading a Kairos Prison ministry this week from Wednesday to Sunday at Hutchins State Jail. 

Fred B. Vinson graduated from University of Texas at Austin in 1970 with a BSCE. Her worked for TXU for 34 years from 1970-2004. He started as associate engineer with Texas Electric Service Company in Fort Worth, worked for Electric Power Research Institute as a loaned employee for 3 years, moved to Dallas as Principal Engineer in 1984, and held many positions in engineering and management. He has been employed with Atmos Energy since 2004 when TXU Gas was purchased by Atmos Energy. He is currently the Director of Gas Measurement Services. Mr. Vinson has been married for 33 years to wife, Sharon, and has three wonderful daughters, and two beautiful grandchildren. His most important accomplishment is having a happy family with kids living strong Christian lives. In his spare time, he loves all things “burnt orange”, old pickup trucks, muscle cars, classic rock, sports, history, and all kids. His biggest challenge is living with an Aggie wife, 3 Aggie daughters, Aggie son-in-law, and Aggie dog. In the future, he would like to work 3-5 more years before retirement because he loves his company, the people, and the work. He has maintained continuous membership with ASCE since a student at UT and has enjoyed the numerous benefits of ASCE including technical resource, diversity of engineering, networking, and good folks. Mr. Vinson says, “I am just proud to be a civil engineer.”

Pictured (Left to Right): Jeff Hawkins, President, Life Members: Driskoll Tubbs, Thakor Sheth, Fred Vinson, Tony Pavia, Ron Hurst, Stan Reed, Mike Glenn, Bud Smallwood, and John Jones