In Memoriam: Paul Torgersen ’53, Former President of Virginia Tech

Paul Ernest Torgersen ‘53, an industrial engineering graduate who served Virginia Tech as a faculty member, dean and president, passed away on March 29, 2015. He was 83 years old.

A New Jersey native, Torgersen attended Lehigh on a tennis scholarship and earned a B.S. in industrial engineering. He went on to earn his M.S. and Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 1956 and 1959, respectively. In 1959, Torgersen joined the faculty of Oklahoma State University, where he served as an assistant professor and later an associate professor until 1966. 

In 1967, Torgersen accepted the position of professor and head of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at Virginia Tech, the university to which he would remain dedicated for the rest of his life.

Lehigh awarded Torgersen an honorary Doctor of Engineering in 1997, and, in 2010, the university’s industrial and systems engineering department (ISE) awarded him with the ISE Distinguished Alumni Award in Academia. 

Teaching was Torgersen’s first love. Regardless of the position he held, he taught at least one class per semester for 58 consecutive years before and during his tenure at Virginia Tech. In an interview with WDBJ’s Orlando Salinas in 2014, Torgersen described his response when he was asked to serve as president: "The people in charge said, 'We need you.' I said, 'Are you sure?' They said, 'We need you.' Well, I made a condition: I'll become an administrator, but I'm not going to leave the classroom."

True to his word, the 1992 recipient of the Virginia Engineering Educator of the Year Award stayed in the classroom. He taught his final class at Virginia Tech in spring 2014. 

Torgersen served as dean of Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering from 1970 to 1990, during which time the college moved from the bottom ten percent to the top ten percent in national rankings for research. Torgersen also served as interim president for eight months in 1987-1988 and became president of Virginia Tech’s Corporate Research Center in 1990. He later served as chairman of the engineering Deans’ Council. In 1994, Torgersen began his tenure as the fourteenth president of Virginia Tech.

As president, a position he held until 2000, Torgersen helped Virginia Tech gain national recognition in academics and athletics. His tenure saw a record $337 million fundraising campaign and the near doubling of the university’s endowment. Under Torgersen’s leadership, U.S. News & World Report ranked the university’s engineering and business colleges among the top 50 in the nation. His presidency also saw milestones in the appointment of women and minorities to senior leadership positions at Virginia Tech: Torgersen oversaw the hiring of the university’s first black vice president and the first female senior vice president and provost.

Torgersen was appointed to the National Academy of Engineering in 1986. He served on the Virginia Governor’s Task Force on Science and Technology and was a Fellow in the Institute of Industrial Engineers and the American Society for Engineering Education. Other accomplishments include his appointment to the National Research Council and the authorship and co-authorship of five books.

A building and a bridge on Virginia Tech’s campus, a student scholarship, and an annual award granted to the football player who best exemplifies commitment, hard work and effort bear Torgersen’s name.