Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 2, 1993 TAG: 9304020423
SECTION: FOUNDERS DAY PAGE: FD-7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
HARRY DUDLEY: A JACK, MASTER OF ALL TRADES
When Hancock Hall was opened in April of 1990, budget cuts during the bidding and construction cycles precluded the completion of the 14 laboratories targeted for interdisciplinary materials research. Economic reTstraints placed severe limitations on lab furnishings and facilities.Much of the credit for subsequently installing complex research instruments and ancillary equipment into the laboratories to prepare them for student use goes to Harry C. Dudley, a lab instrument maker and one of this year's winners of the President Award for Excellence.
Joe Price-O'Brien, the operations manager for the interdisciplinary materials research program, credits Dudley, with an instrumental role in "the efficient occupation and operation of these (Hancock Hall's) laboratories, neither of which would have been possible in the same time frame nor at the same cost if he had not taken responsibility" for numerous tasks.
"By performing work himself and relying on outside conTtractors only when absolutely necessary, Mr. Dudley has saved both the engineering science and mechanics and materials and science engineering departments and the college of engineering a considerable sum which could not have been appropriated in view of current budgetary limitations," he said.
Dudley, a 22-year veteran of the university who has spent the last 16 years with the materials science and engineering department, was nominated for the presidential award by Price-O'Brien as well as D.P.H. Hasselman, professor of MSE, and Ron Gordon, professor and department head of MSE.
Hasselman, who holds a distinguished named professorship, recalled Dudley's "dedication far beyond the call of duty" when his lab equipment was destroyed three years ago during a flood.
Dudley promptly installed replacement equipment and was thus able to "minimize the effect of the flood on the students' research activities," Hasselman wrote in his nomination letter.
Additional praise for Dudley comes from Gordon. The department head said, "I can state without any reservation that had it not been for the loyal, dedicated and expert services which have been rendered to the department by Mr. Dudley, the department would not have been able to make the innovations/improvements in undergraduate laboratory instruction and graduate student research facilities which have occurred since my appointment as department hear. Mr. Dudley is the most hard-working, dedicated and talented laboratory technical person I have ever encountered in my entire 28 years of experience in engineering education at the University of Utah and Virginia Tech."