Alumni Updates

Welcome Alumni and Friends!
We hope that you enjoy reading some of the recent updates sent in by our alumni. If you are an alumnus of the University of Maine College of Engineering, we encourage you to also send in your updates, including uploading a photo and/or linking to your email and website.

Click here to Submit Your Update

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Need a correction made? Have questions? Contact Victoria Purdum at 581-2204 or christopher.karlen@maine.edu

Beth Sturtevant
President, CCB, Inc.

I had a pretty successful high school career and always loved being outside. At my high school, engineering and math were not really promoted as real _ABD5105career options, so I didn’t know a lot about all of the options that were available to me at that time. I came from a family of teachers and I soon realized that I wasn’t going to follow in my family’s footsteps into the field of teaching. I found myself searching for a clear direction to pursue. If not teaching, what would it be? I pursued a variety of things for a couple of years following graduation, both inside and outside Maine.  When I came back to Maine,  a friend who was a  Forestry major at UMaine was instrumental in my getting a job as part of a field survey team doing Spruce Bud Worm research in and around Baxter State Park.  The research program was based out of the University of Maine School of Forestry and the USGS.  It was there that I found out about the world of surveying, mapping, and cartography. I thought, “WOW! This is really cool!” I finally found something that I enjoyed and I was working outside.  After the field season ended in the fall, I came back to the campus to work.  While there, I learned about the construction technology program being offered at UMaine.   I thought that surveying was the direction I wanted to go in and I was anxious to get working in the field, so I decided to enroll.  During my time in the program I found that I really enjoyed the field of construction and construction management and from there, things just took off!

I had an opportunity to get a job with HE Sargent, Inc. right after graduation. I took it and never looked back. I worked for them as a field engineer and timekeeper and did layout and field office work. During this time, I met a project manager from another company that was a sister-company to HE Sargent.  Both companies were working on the same project.  This project manager served as an important mentor to me. He was a Civil Engineering graduate of UM and he kind of took me under his wing, gave me support and guidance, challenging and teaching me more things than I could have ever learned in school. I went to work for that company (Consolidated Constructors and Builders) and worked closely with him for four years until he retired.  That was 25 years ago!   I will never forget him telling me, “Yes, of course, you can do this!”  His encouragement was hugely important to me!

Today, I am the president and principal owner of CCB, Inc., a multimillion-dollar, woman-owned construction firm serving New England and beyond with over 65 years of experience. And I am telling all of you that “Yes, YOU can do this too!”

David Foster ’94

Like any good engineer, I still seem to have a pen stuck in the neck of my shirt, even when out on a weekend walk.

Professionally I’m currently working as a programmer in the Financials department at Tyler Technologies in Falmouth, but I do a lot of engineering projects on the side, such as recently modifying a compact CNC machine at the Portland Arts and Technical High School to allow control via a Linux PC.

David Foster
Electrical Engineering Technology ‘94

Elwood M. Beach ’51
General Engineering

I graduated with a B.S. degree in General Engineering in 1951. The program, as it was at the time, was discontinued shortly after I graduated.

Kevin Keller ’04
Mechanical Engineering Technology

Currently, I am working for the Hershey Company, as a Corporate Packaging Systems Engineer.  I have been with the company for 3 yrs now.  My group’s main objectives are; designing, procuring, and overseeing the install/start-up of packaging lines around the world.  We work on a daily basis with vision systems, robotic packaging, and high-speed servo wrapping.  It’s a pretty sweet job.

Marc Soucy ’89
Electrical Engineering Technology

I’m a 1989 Grad working at The Hershey Company
as a Project Manager.

Nick Dann ‘62
Mechanical Engineering

I’ve now moved to Gig Harbor, Washington, with the intention of retiring, but actually still employed part-time by Carrier Corporation (UTC), telecommuting to my previous office in Concord, California. I continue to design and specify DDC control systems for HVAC projects in Northern California. Forty-six years, now, in all phases of HVAC construction, sales, and design!

Jason Syverson ’98
BSCE

I’ve felt disconnected from UMaine since moving to NH upon graduation in 1998. I did return to visit a few times, most recently in the middle of my tenure at DARPA in 2008 (unfortunately not much overlap with my career track these days). I definitely look back fondly at the days at UMaine that laid the foundation of my career and hope to engage with the University in the future if our mutual interests should align. I saw the update section and figured I would send something along.

I graduated in 1998 with a BSCE and entered the Engineering Leadership Development Program at Sanders/Lockheed Martin in New Hampshire. I received my MSEE from WPI in 2001 focused on networking and security and have worked in this field since then.

I joined the Defense Advanced Research Program Agency in 2007 and accepted as a Program Manager and just recently resigned due to my inability to sell our home and the subsequent commute from NH to VA each week.

In May of this year, I founded Siege Technologies(http://www.siegetechnologies.com), which is focused on research and development in offensive and defensive computer security. We have three companies and three government customers currently and are expanding rapidly (at least as rapidly as one can move in the defense market!) I also started a blog to highlight articles and journal papers in the
field: http://www.cyber-son.blogspot.com

My wife Bethanee and I live with our four children in Dunbarton, NH.

Rod Morrison ‘87
Civil Engineering

As for me, after surviving Prof. Dagher’s Structural Class, I made a promise to society to NOT design structures. Instead, I have ended up with a career in civil/site design and founded what is now a multi-discipline firm with offices in New York and Connecticut. While I do not consider myself “smart” (the above-noted professor might agree with that), I do attribute some drive and effort to a “Maine mentality”. There is something good about learning to work through challenges and press toward answers – all while trailing through three feet of snow to get to and from class!

Alan Banister ’65
Mechanical Engineering

I’ve retired after a rewarding career teaching science and after some time in the Corps of Engineers and as an Ocean Engineer with Sperry Systems Management Division. Retired life has allowed me to pursue my many interests and to be more involved in my local community.

Art Ray ’66
Electrical Engineering

I am retired from Central Maine Power Co in Augusta after 35 years there. I live in Sidney, ME and am involved with UMaine Augusta Senior College. I recommend the Senior College experience for retirees to keep the mind sharp. No longer practicing engineering, my avocation is local history. I keep busy putting together PowerPoint slide shows on local history subjects, that I have presented at local historical societies and at UMASC. I am still able to keep fit by doing hiking, biking, and skiing.

David R. Alexander ’55
Mechanical Engineering
’56 Pulp& Paper Certificate

Along with other Pulp&Paper/Engineering grads, I left Maine in 1956. A 29-year career with the leading paper mill air systems company, Midland-Ross, took me from Boston-NYC-NJ-Ohio-Montreal-Wisconsin and finally back to Maine. So I guess I helped reverse the so-called Maine Brain Drain, which is a myth-according to Dean Humphrey. The past 20 years consulting paper mills on their Air Systems has been interesting, rewarding and never dull.  Although  I call my solo operation Maine-ly Air, ( pronounced AYUH) most projects have taken me far from Maine. While the North American Paper Industry has gone through attrition recently, I am very pleased to learn current Pulp/Paper grads easily find jobs in the industry.

Andrea Winslow Burke ‘95
Chemical Engineering

I am a ’95 grad from the department of chemical engineering.  After working within Maine’s pulp & paper industry for a few years, I decided to pursue a law degree at the University of Maine School of Law.  Upon graduation in 2000, I worked for The Procter & Gamble Company as Patent Counsel supporting their Over-The-Counter Medicines business.  Returning to the East Coast in 2002, I moved to Philadelphia and took a Patent Counsel position with GlaxoSmithKline supporting their Consumer Healthcare division.


Bill Dorrity ’57
Engineering Physics

I have been teaching one course a semester here at a local college until this past semester. I am 83 and restoring a 1925 Model T Ford. My wife Alise at 77 is still traveling to foreign countries and helping in the nursing community. Her last visit was to Kathmandu, Nepal for six weeks to assist the locals in dealing with an outbreak of Leprosy.

Robert Watson ‘90
Mechanical Engineering Technology

I graduated in 1990 with a BSMET from UMaine.  After graduation, I started working for the Maine Department of Transportation.  I went back to UMaine and took some Civil Engineering courses, so I could take the PE exam in the Civil Engineering discipline.  Currently, I am the Region Manager for the MaineDOT’s Northern Region, which stretches from Lincoln, ME North, and East to the Canadian border.  I am married to another UMaine graduate who graduated in 1989 with a degree in Dental Hygiene.  We now live with our two children in Presque Isle, ME.

Daniel Cobb ’94
Mechanical Engineering

I am currently employed as Program Director for CONTECH Construction Products, Inc., a nationwide site solutions company that offers bridge, drainage, earth stabilization, and stormwater products for the civil engineering industry.  In this position, I am responsible for leading new product development programs, laboratory testing initiatives, technical analysis of business development opportunities and intellectual property strategy.  Prior to this, I worked on the compact disc / DVD replication and electrostatic control industry.

Jackie Flynn ’02
Mechanical Engineering Technology

Tim Flynn ’03
Mechanical Engineering

Jackie Flynn, MET 2002, recently (November 2008) took a position at FHC, Inc in Bowdoin, ME as Project Development Coordinator (Fancy title for Project Manager).   Tim Flynn MEE 2003, is working for Diversified Business Communications in Portland, ME as a Project Manager.  Tim was working since graduation at CSC at BIW in Bath, ME before recently changing companies in October 2008. We were married in July 2002 and currently live in Gardiner.