Foundation Footnotes
C. Richard Vaughn
Engineering alumnus among Watauga Medalists
C. Richard Vaughn, an NC State engineering alumnus, has been honored with the prestigious Watauga Medal for his distinguished service to the university.
The 1961 graduate in nuclear engineering, who has twice served on NC State’s Board of Trustees, has been a member of the Alumni Association for 25 years and is a member of the W.J. Peele Lifetime Giving Society, which honors donors who have given $1 million or more to NC State. In 2004 he pledged $5 million to the Wolfpack Club to fund scholarships and renovations to the football stadium. The Wolfpack Towers were renamed the C. Richard Vaughn Towers in recognition of his generosity.
Vaughn has also given more than $100,000 to NC State academic funds. He created the C. Richard Vaughn Scholarship Endowment to support an undergraduate scholarship in the College of Engineering. And he funded the renovation of a nuclear engineering laboratory that was named for one of his former professors, Dr. Raymond L. Murray.
Vaughn, of Mount Airy, N.C., is chairman and CEO of the John S. Clark Company, chairman of the North Carolina Granite Corporation and chairman of Riverside Building Supply, Inc. He recently joined the NC State Engineering Foundation Board of Directors.
Established in 1975, The Watauga Medal honors individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of the university.
Dr. Stephen D. Roberts
Roberts named first Allison professor
Thanks to a gift from an alumnus in honor of his uncle, Dr. Stephen D. Roberts has been selected as the first A. Doug Allison Distinguished Professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering.
Roberts directs NC State’s Laboratory for Healthcare Systems Engineering and is program director and Fellow with the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has been a professor of industrial engineering at NC State since 1990 and served as department head from 1990 to 1999.
The endowed professorship was established by Edward P. Fitts to honor Allison, Fitts’ uncle who passed away last year. Fitts credits Allison, a 1941 graduate of the College of Textiles at NC State, with inspiring him to pursue a degree in industrial engineering. Fitts graduated from NC State in 1961 and went on to become chairman and CEO of the global packaging company Dopaco.
Fitts’ $10 million gift in 2005 to endow the industrial and systems engineering department remains the largest gift ever received by the College of Engineering from an individual donor and the largest endowed gift to academics in NC State University’s history. The department was renamed the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering in honor of his dedication to the College.