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Profiles in Giving: College of Engineering
Tom and Nancy Hanson |
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Technically speaking, Tom Hanson (1960 B.S.M.E.) didn't spend most of his professional life as an engineer. Rather, he used his UI engineering degree to develop a career based on speaking technically. After years in the heating and cooling industry, Hanson integrated his expertise in engineering, business, sales, and communications and started his own company in 1980, which is now known as Fleming Hanson Sales. The Chicago-based company, from which Hanson retired in 2000, contracts with various heating and cooling manufacturers as exclusive regional sales representatives. Now, inspired by his own career experiences and a deep commitment to his alma mater, Hanson and his wife, Nancy, have endowed the Hanson Center for Technical Communication in the UI College of Engineering. Through this innovative center, today's students have a comprehensive resource for developing excellent communication skills as part of their engineering education -- skills Hanson feels are too often missing among engineers. "I learned during my career that there is a wide range of ability among engineers to speak and write effectively, and that the engineers with good communication skills stand out among their peers," said Hanson, who lives in Hinsdale, Illinois. "They are better engineers, and they have broader career opportunities." "Tom and Nancy have been very supportive of the college and the University for many years," said P. Barry Butler, dean of the College of Engineering. "In addition to endowing the Center for Technical Communication, they have made generous contributions in support of the Seamans Center for the Engineering Arts and Sciences, the C. Maxwell Stanley Hydraulics Laboratory, and the annual Engineering Excellence Fund. "Just as important," Butler added, "Tom has played a leadership role in chairing the college's Development Council and as a key member of the Comprehensive Campaign Steering Committee, which directs our efforts within the University's Good. Better. Best. Iowa campaign. We couldn't be more grateful." Now, as UI engineering students develop essential oral and written communication skills -- a longstanding emphasis throughout the UI -- through courses, peer tutoring, and other programs in the Hanson Center for Technical Communication, they will benefit not only from the Hansons' generosity, but from the lessons Tom Hanson learned over a long and wide-ranging career. And that's no mere technicality.
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