Lehigh Tradition of Excellence Award honors Fritz Lab technicians

This fall, Fritz Lab technicians were honored for their outstanding work in preparing the Fritz Lab for its 50th Anniversary celebration this past October. The Lehigh Tradition of Excellence Award recognizes individuals or teams for exceptional contributions either within their department or throughout the university. Recipients are nominated by staff, faculty, students, alumni, parents, visitors, or vendors. The RCEAS team in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering was recognized for their extraordinary work in the organization and coordination of the Fritz Lab commemoration.
The celebration opened with a reception and dinner in the Main Bay of the Fritz Lab addition, attended by over 100 civil engineering alumni, faculty, staff and students. The honored Fritz Lab technicians helped in transforming the main lab floor into a festive dining hall replete with tables adorned with fine brown, white and gold linens, china and glass stemware. Centerpieces of scrap steel designed by undergraduate Engineering & Arts students were assembled by the Fritz Lab technicians.
This commemoration reflected the strong camaraderie and fellowship supporting the history of civil engineering at Lehigh. Guests traveled from all corners of the world, coming from as far away as Japan, the West Coast and Texas.
A second day of the celebration included presentations and discussions on the great potential for civil engineering students in the study and design of complex infrastructure systems. A number of successful Lehigh alumni, faculty and civil engineering professionals presented their views on how the field is growing and changing..
The finale of the two-day celebration included the initiation of new Fritz Engineering Research Society members and the awarding of the 2005 Lynn S. Beedle Distinguished Civil and Environmental Engineering Award to George J. Tamaro, MS’61. Dr. John Fisher, MS’58, PhD’64, professor emeritus, made the presentation. Dr. Stephen Pessiki, the Department’s new chairman presented to his predecessor, Dr. Arup SenGupta, a gift of appreciation for his service as chair. Dr. John L. Wilson, host and master of ceremonies at both the Fritz Lab dinner and the closing banquet, presented to professor emeritus Dr. Ben Yen, a gift of appreciation for his faithful service to the students of the department throughout his many years on the faculty.
For an in-depth look at the history the Fritz Laboratory, please visit our Lehigh University Special Collections- Online Exhibits website.