| |
| |
Virginia Tech Honors Engineer Ray Martin for his Career Achievements
Posted by : Dr. William Knocke - May 13, 2008 08:54:00
|
BLACKSBURG, Va. May 8, 2008 ––Ray Martin, who earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Virginia Tech in 1964 and 1968, respectively, is a 2008 inductee into Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering’s Academy of Engineering Excellence. Martin who resides in Ashland, Va., joins a select group of 80 engineering alumni in the Virginia Tech academy.
Ray Martin, center, who received his undergraduate and master's degrees in civil engineering from Virginia Tech in 1964 and 1968, respectively, receives his award for induction into Virginia Tech's Academy of Engineering Excellence from William Knocke, left, professor and head of the civil and environmental engineering department, and Richard Benson, right, dean of the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech.
When Martin earned his undergraduate degree, he joined B&O Railroad for a year and then returned to Virginia Tech to pursue his graduate degree. He and his wife Carol had two children in tow, so he earned a salary by teaching civil technology at Bluefield State College three days a week, and commuted from Bluefield to graduate school at Virginia Tech the other four. He continued this grueling schedule for three years, obtaining his master’s in 1968.
He went on to earn his doctorate at West Virginia University. Finishing his Ph.D. coursework in two years, he moved to Caldwell, N.J., where he worked as a senior staff engineer for a geotechnical firm called Joseph F. Ward Associates, today named Converse Consultants. After two years, he defended his dissertation in 1972, and he started a new job for the northern Maryland-based Schnabel Engineering Associates, a geotechnical firm with about 12 employees, owned by James Schnabel.
Two years later Martin opened the first branch office of Schnabel in Richmond, Va., and was named an associate of the firm. In 1984 he became a principal with Schnabel and led the Richmond office until he became president of the firm in 1988. In 1993, he became the Chief Executive Officer.
When Jim Schnabel retired in 2001, Martin added Chairman of the Board to his CEO title until he left the company the following year at the age of 60. Schnabel opened 14 offices from New Brunswick, New Jersey to Atlanta, Georgia, and had 300 employees before he retired, and it is still growing today.
The retirement never really happened. Martin started writing a book on leadership, but then his individual consulting business started to absorb more of his time. His primary engineering practice today relates to design and rehabilitation of dams and consulting on building foundations. He is now billing upwards of 1200 hours a year, not exactly a retiree’s schedule.
Among his numerous geotechnical consulting projects during his career are: the Landlevel Ship Construction Facility at Newport News Shipyard; the James Center Office Buildings, Richmond; Coors Shenandoah Brewery, Elkton, Virginia; the Deep Creek Dam in North Carolina; dam inspections in Brazil; and the geotechnical design of a 242-foot high Clifford Craig Dam in Roanoke County. Most recently he consulted with the Corps of Engineers in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, worked on a due diligence study of hydro dams in Peru and on earthquake issues related to a terminal in Sonora, Mexico.
He remains one of the College of Engineering’s most active alumni. He served as chair of its Advisory Board twice and as a member for more than 20 years. In fact, Martin was chair of the Advisory Board in 1999 when it launched this Academy of Engineering Excellence. In 2001, Malcolm McPherson, then the acting dean of the College, turned to Martin and asked him to be a co-chair of the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science’s Alumni Task Force. He agreed, and helped significantly in raising the awareness of the alumni and Virginia’s politicians to the needs of ICTAS.
Martin was also a member of the Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Advisory Board from 1987 through 1993. One of his many accomplishments included taking on the fund raising for a new geotechnical engineering laboratory for the CEE department, and in less than two months of dialing phone numbers and visiting prospective donors, received approximately $925,000 in commitments to build the facility at Virginia Tech.
In recognition of his extraordinary service, the College of Engineering presented Martin with the Distinguished Service Award in 1993 and its Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2003. He and Carol are also members of the Ut Prosim Society of Virginia Tech.
A registered professional engineer in nine states and the District of Columbia, Martin is a former president of the Virginia Society of Professional Engineers, which presented him with its Distinguished Service Award in 1982. He has been inducted into Tau Beta Pi and Chi Epsilon and is a member and a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Ray and his wife Carol live in Ashland where they own the Henry Clay Inn.
~Lynn Nystrom |
| |
| Go back to the previous page |
|
|
| |
