FOUNDATIONS
Fitts gift has department on the move
Five years after his historic gift, alumnus Edward P. Fitts urges others to keep the momentum going.
Edward P. Fitts
In 2005, when Edward P. Fitts gave $10 million to industrial and systems engineering at NC State, a key condition was that it be used to help an already highly regarded department rise in national rankings. The gift would accomplish this, in part, through endowed professorships and fellowships to help NC State compete for the best faculty and graduate students.
In just five years, the Fitts gift has made a significant impact on the department and the College. Professorships set up under the endowment brought outstanding faculty from other schools and helped keep other top performers at NC State. Ten graduate students held full or partial Fitts fellowships this past year. And in national undergraduate rankings by US News & World Report, the department rose from No. 18 in 2007 to No. 12 in 2009. The graduate rankings score also improved in 2009.
For more information about giving to the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, please contact Lori Richards at 919.513.1338 or lori_richards@ncsu.edu.
These successes notwithstanding, Fitts isn’t resting. The 1961 industrial engineering alumnus is pushing forward and inviting others to join in the excitement.
“We’ve only scratched the surface,” Fitts said. “Success breeds success. Our faculty is doing an outstanding job and that enables us to attract more top professors and students to our programs. We must continue to welcome the best talent at NC State and provide new ways to develop and retain it.”
Fitts is accustomed to building top-tier organizations. He spent 27 years as chairman and CEO of the global packaging company Dopaco, which he grew from a small company of 115 employees to a company of 1,500 employees spread across nine plants with sales of more than $400 million annually.
To continue the department’s momentum, Fitts said, “we need help from alumni and other individuals and corporations to move us to the next level and beyond.”
Dr. Paul Cohen, the department head and holder of one of the professorships the gift established, has seen how hard Fitts works to make sure the department keeps improving.
With the gift came the establishment of an independent advisory board, led by Fitts, that meets with Cohen periodically to provide direction and advice.
“Ed and the rest of the board ask great questions,” Cohen said. “They challenge us and force us to think very carefully about the direction we’re taking.”
Fitts lists three reasons to invest in the department. First, the initial transformational investment has been successful, providing a strong foundation for new donors to build on. Second, there is no better way to invest in the nation’s future than by producing great engineers who can drive its economic growth.
Third, “and perhaps most satisfying for me,” Fitts said, “is the chance to meet and work with the students who receive our scholarships and support. They are full of ideas, energy, inspiration and optimism. They are ready to solve problems with fresh eyes and create things we’ve never dreamed of.”
Fitts, a Watauga Medal recipient and Distinguished Engineering Alumnus, offers high praise for the drive and vision of Dr. Louis Martin-Vega, dean of the College of Engineering. Fitts is also quick to credit NC State for his business success and wants to build that sense of pride in the department among its alumni and other supporters.
“It’s gratifying to realize that one’s gift can have such
an immediate and productive impact,” he said. 