B.S. in mechanical engineering, 1984 For over four decades, Mark Rhodes has had a distinguished career in the aerospace and defense industry, making significant contributions to engineering, technology and leadership in advanced aviation programs.
B.S. in mechanical engineering, 1983 Ph.D. in aerospace engineering, 2023 For more than three decades, Sujit Sinha has been a leader in engineering and technology.
Recently, students from the UK Pigman College of Engineering Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering had the unique opportunity to visit the GE Aerospace Additive Technology Center in West Chester, Ohio, gaining firsthand exposure to the cutting-edge advancements shaping the aerospace industry.
Ohio native Ervin J. Nutter enrolled in the undergraduate program in mechanical engineering at UK in 1934. He later dropped out to go to work for, among other companies, Procter and Gamble. During this time he became the youngest person ever in the state of Ohio to pass a professional engineer’s license exam. After a job promotion went to a colleague holding an engineering degree, Nutter moved his family back to Lexington where he convinced UK administrators to allow him to enroll in the middle of the semester. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1943.
Miss Margaret Ingels came to the University of Kentucky from Paris, Kentucky, hoping to pursue a degree in architecture. Fortunately for the engineering profession, there was no degree program in architecture at UK at that time and Dean F. Paul Anderson persuaded her to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering as “the next best thing.” She was the first female engineering graduate from this institution when she received her Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering in 1916.
Ralph Anderson called himself an engineer and a farmer. Born and raised in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, he began his formal education in engineering at the University of Cincinnati after serving approximately two and one-half years as a B-29 flight engineer in the U.S. Air Force. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from UK in 1950, working during his two years at UK in the Engineering Machine Shop. He spent the next seven years at General Motors and General Electric Company as a test engineer, and at Kett Corporation in analytical analysis and design.
Born in Eagle Cliff, Georgia, Robert M. Drake, Jr., graduated from the University of Kentucky with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering in 1942 and immediately joined the U.S. Army Air Corps. He received his Master of Science (1946) and Doctor of Philosophy (1950) from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Drake resigned from the AAF in 1947 and joined the faculty of the College of Engineering at UC-Berkeley.
Thomas A. Auxier was born in Auxier, Floyd County, Kentucky. He received his Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering in 1958 and Master of Science in mechanical engineering in 1962 from the University of Kentucky. From 1965 to 1981, Mr. Auxier held positions with Belcan Corporation and General Electric Company in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1981, he accepted a position with Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company.
Lawrenceburg, Kentucky native and Anderson County High School graduate Elaine Duncan earned the Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kentucky in 1974. She was an officer in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a member of the Society of Women Engineers and Pi Tau Sigma honor society. In 1984 she earned a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota while working full time at 3M Corporation.
B.S. Mechanical Engineering 1956 Dr. Wendell Norman’s distinguished engineering career is highlighted by innovation, leadership, management, teaching and a willingness to work extraordinarily hard to reach a worthy goal. All of those qualities led to a level of expertise described by his peers as “invaluable to the nation” during a critical period in defense and space exploration.
