Perhaps the most valuable thing CEE alumni can offer students — other than jobs — is perspective. They’ve “been there,” as the saying goes. And with years of accumulated experience, they have insight and advice current students could use.
If there’s one thing that ties together most of the newest members of the School’s advisory board, it’s that they don’t work as engineers. In fact, three of them work in banking and real estate. That’s not to say, however, that they’re not using what they learned in their CEE classes every day.
“I’ve always said an engineer can do anything he likes. You know, what we are taught is to look at a situation, assess what the problem is, and find a solution. We have a structured mind, we have an analytical mind. And all businesses are the same thing.”
The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering welcomed four new members to its External Advisory Board this fall. Over the coming days, we’re going to introduce you to these people, all graduates of the program. And these guys are interesting — they have advice, insight and stories to share.
Marty Williams built a career as a successful homebuilder in Tampa after he graduated from Georgia Tech. Not too unusual for a School of Civil and Environmental Engineering alumnus. His next step, though? That would qualify as unusual.
The bonds of a Georgia Tech education are strong. So strong, in fact, that four graduate school classmates can scatter throughout the western hemisphere and, 50 years later, remain engaged in a deep and abiding friendship. It’s a friendship that has enveloped their wives, and it’s one that rekindled this fall as the entire group gathered in Atlanta for the first time since 1964.
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Mason Building, 790 Atlantic Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332-0355
Phone: 404-894-2201
Fax: 404-894-2278