BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU College of Engineering on Thursday inducted mechanical engineering alumnus Jack Rettig into the Society for Engineering Excellence at the group’s ninth annual pinning ceremony, held in The Commons of Patrick F. Taylor Hall. The Society honors donors who make a lifetime commitment of $1 million or more to the College of Engineering.
A group of alumni and friends founded the Society for Engineering Excellence in 2008. The members of the Society make a philanthropic commitment to ensure that the LSU College of Engineering has the resources necessary to develop the best engineers.
Rettig graduated cum laude in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering in 1978. His career brought him to several exploration and production companies. Later, he joined the service sector with Moores Wireline in Lafayette.
An engineer and an entrepreneur, Rettig and a group of investors bought Compressco, a gas compression company, in 1999. In 2002, Rettig started Professional Wireline Rentals, which he sold to Halliburton in 2010. He is now enjoying retirement with his longtime partner Debra Scadden.
Rettig contributed to various scholarships within the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. His donations aided design projects for students as well.
“One of the most rewarding things is meeting the students and seeing the impact we do,” said Rettig upon acceptance of the honor.
Attendees also heard from various College faculty, alumni and students during the event. Joshua Medernach, a recent computer science graduate who now works at General Electric Digital in San Francisco, talked about his success since graduation and how contributions from donors helped him throughout his education at LSU.
“While at LSU, I received a number of scholarship awards,” Medernach said. “Every time I got an award, it was confirmation that I was doing things right.”
As part of the event, members were able to tour the first phase of the newly renovated engineering campus. Judy Wornat, interim dean of the College of Engineering, updated attendees on how their contributions made the renovations to the building a reality. She talked about how these contributions also help with recruiting the top faculty and students.
“We owe a lot of thanks to LSU,” Rettig said.
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For more information, contact Caroline Byrne at cbyrne4@lsu.edu or (225) 578-4630.
