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Joseph
R. Loring Professorship
This
professorship is named in honor of Joseph R. Loring, a 1942
graduate of electrical engineering.
Joe
Loring did not come to Virginia Tech of his own accord.
One night on bivouac in the US Army, he was awakened by
his platoon sergeant, marched 17 miles back to camp, and
put on a train. His destination turned out to be Blacksburg,
Virginia where he and several hundred other trainees were
assigned to study engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(V.P.I.). At the end of the twelve-month crash course of
study, Joe was assigned to receive training in the operation
of a top secret voice scrambling installation at the Pentagon.
The voice scrambling system was termed “The Green Hornet.”
When the war was over, he returned to V.P.I. where he completed
his degree.
After
working for a design firm for a few years, Mr. Loring entered
into private practice as a consulting engineer in 1956.
His first corporate client was the F&M Shaeffer Brewing
Company, with an account totaling $180. The brewing company
did more than $150,000 worth of business the next year,
allowing Loring to expand his staff.
In 1961,
Mr. Loring was selected as the electrical engineering consultant
for the World Trade center. This assignment moved the firm
into the limelight and led to other exciting assignments
including facilities for IBM, Citicorp Center in New York
City, Union Carbide’s headquarters in Danbury, Conn.,
and major laboratory facilities for Exxon, Merck, and Bristol
Myers. In 1980 his firm submitted the winning design for
the billion dollar Federal Parliament Building in Canberra,
Australia.
Mr.
Loring enjoys golfing, jogging, and gardening. In recent
years he has also increased his involvement with Virginia
Tech with charter membership in the Ut Prosim Society, an
appointment to the Committee of 100, and was inducted into
the Academy of Engineering Excellence in 2001. About his
alma mater, Mr. Loring aid, “I owe Virginia Tech—I
received a great education there at government expenses,
and I met my wife, Sheila (Sheila Johnston, former university
manager of special events) there in 1986. We’ve made
many friends there since. It’s a debt I will enjoy
repaying.”
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