ASFE’s first Founders’ Award could not go to anyone more deserving than Barry Thacker. Mr. Thacker is president of Geo/Environmental Associates (GA), the company he started in 1995 after leaving a large corporation.
Clients, colleagues, and the wider engineering profession all recognize Mr. Thacker’s excellence as an engineer. Many of GA’s clients are in the coal mining industry, one of the most highly regulated industries in the world. When a serious or life/environment-threatening issue arises, Mr. Thacker is the first person clients call. Also, Mr. Thacker has published over 50 technical papers and his projects have won national technical awards in engineering.
Nearly all of the 23 current employees of GA worked with him before and chose to follow him after he left the large corporation. Mr. Thacker’s work ethics are unquestionable. He sets an example by arriving at the office early and working more than anyone. Mr. Thacker takes time to teach other engineers to perform and think innovatively.
As a business major who has worked with many engineers for over 20 years, only a handful has understood both engineering and business. Mr. Thacker is at the top of this list. In the seventeen years I have worked with him, I have never come in contact with anyone more enthusiastic, excited, and proud to be an engineer. At the age of 48, he continues to thrive and even blossom in his profession.
What he does above and beyond his engineering position is amazing. He has been involved with the Boy Scouts for years. In order to encourage young men and women to learn more about becoming engineers, Mr. Thacker established an Engineering Explorers Post. In addition to encouraging other students to pursue engineering, he also has influenced his oldest daughter’s decision to study engineering at the University of Tennessee.
Two years ago, Mr. Thacker decided GA should pursue a weekend community service project as a company, using engineering skills to help people who normally cannot afford these types of services. Mr. Thacker is a trout fisherman and was interested in improving water quality in order to enable more trout to spawn in Coal Creek, a stream polluted with acid mine drainage from abandoned coal mines. However, meetings with various groups, government agencies, local officials, and residents made it apparent that, while improving water quality would be welcome, every group had its own goal. The community service project snowballed into the non-profit Coal Creek Watershed Foundation (CCWF), with the goal of "improving the quality of life in the Coal Creek watershed." The accomplishments of this group are too vast to explain in a mere 500 words.
This effort concurred with the time when engineering technical societies were pushing their leaders to get involved with community service, celebrate themselves as heroes in society, and embrace elected officials—all for the publicity. Mr. Thacker remembered a better plan, used by Ronald Reagan. When President Reagan wanted to publicize the achievements of America, he showed the student, the elderly citizen, or the single working mother who benefited. Reagan thus got Mr. Thacker’s attention and earned his respect. Mr. Thacker wants to earn the respect of the public for the engineering profession. He wants the average citizen to know that engineers are the designers and builders of the quality of life. Tired of hearing talk about how engineers needed to do something about regaining public respect, Barry decided to act.
Nomination submitted by Carol Moore, Geo/Environmental Associates, Inc.
[ASFE Home Page] [ASFE
Founders' Award Info]
[Barry K. Thacker, PE, First Founders' Award Recipient]
[Barry K. Thacker Nomination Package]
[Thacker's Presentation to ASFE at Fall 2001 Meeting]]
Geo/Environmental Associates' Home Page