 Howard Tellepsen speaks at the College of Engineering Alumni Awards April 16. Tellepsen, BSCE 1966, was inducted into the College's Hall of Fame. (Photos: Gary Meek) |
The Georgia Tech College of Engineering honored three School of Civil and Environmental Engineering alumni April 16.
The recognition came at the College’s annual alumni awards hosted by CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield. The honorees were:
- Howard T. Tellepsen Jr., BCE 1966, who was inducted into the College’s Engineering Hall of Fame;
- William E. “Bill” Higginbotham, BCE 1976, who joined the Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni; and
- James L. “Jimmy” Mitchell, BSCE 2005, who was inducted into the Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni.
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Howard T. Tellepsen Sr., as pictured in the 1994 College of Engineering Alumni Awards program. (Photo: College of Engineering) |
For Tellepsen, the honor was particularly meaningful.
His father, Howard Tellepsen Sr., was among the first group of Engineering Hall of Fame inductees in 1994. In fact, the Tellepsens are the first father-son duo to both join the Hall.
Tellepsen also noted in his remarks that this year's ceremony came on what would've been his father's 103rd birthday.
Read more about this year's honorees:
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Howard T. Tellepsen, Jr. |
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Howard received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Georgia Tech in 1966. He is chairman and CEO of Tellepsen Corporation, a fourth-generation, family-owned and operated business providing commercial, institutional, and industrial construction services. The company started building in Houston in 1909, and it was responsible for building many of Houston’s most famous landmarks. Howard honored his late father (Howard T. Tellepsen, Sr., CE ’34) in 1996 by endowing the Howard T. Tellepsen Chair in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, as well as naming the Tellepsen 70-seat classroom in the newly renovated Jesse W. Mason Building in 2013. Howard serves on the Campaign Georgia Tech steering committee, is fund chair for the Class of 1966 50th Reunion Committee (after previously serving on his 40th Reunion Committee), and is a trustee emeritus of the Georgia Tech Foundation, the National Alumni Association, and the Civil and Environmental Engineering External Advisory Board. He received the Alumni Association’s 2012 Joseph Mayo Pettit Distinguished Service Award and the 2015 Dean Griffin Community Service Award. In 1996, he was inducted into Georgia Tech’s Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni. |
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William E. Higginbotham |
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Bill received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Georgia Tech in 1976. He currently serves as the president & CEO of ET, a national employee-owned company that specializes in the design and construction of environmental and energy-related projects. Bill spent his early career working for regional engineering firms on projects such as rapid transit, highway construction, mining, dams and reservoirs, and high-rise structures. He then founded and served as president of Chattahoochee Geotechnical Consultants, which later merged with a national environmental engineering firm. Shortly after the merger, Bill led a joint venture that ultimately resulted in the incorporation of ET Environmental Corporation (ET) in 1993. Bill’s contributions to Georgia Tech include support of the Jesse W. Mason Building renovation, sponsorship of Capstone Design projects, and other special-projects funding. He serves on the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s External Advisory Board, and he most recently created an annual professorship for the school. Bill is currently celebrating his 40th class reunion. |
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James L. Mitchell |
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Jimmy graduated from Georgia Tech in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. He is director of project solutions for Skanska, a world-leading project development and construction group. Sustainability is one of his career passions. As one of the state’s first LEED managers, Jimmy created the Atlanta Mission urban garden, and he co-founded a construction material reuse nonprofit based in Atlanta called the Lifecycle Building Center (of which he is now past board chair). He is active with Georgia Tech, serving on the Alumni Association Board of Trustees Executive Committee and the External Advisory Board of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. In 2008 Jimmy and his wife, Angela (a 2013 inductee in the Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni), endowed a scholarship for the President’s Scholarship Program. |
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