Auburn Engineering alumni magazine fall/winter 09 - Samuel Ginn ...

THEN
NOW
By Cheryl Cobb
Education matters and Auburn University engineering graduates are proof
positive. For more than a century our alumni have helped to improve our
standard of living and shape our future in areas ranging from transportation to
energy, business and national security.
Linda Figg
Civil, Auburn University, 1981
making a difference in industry
&
Matthew Scott Sloan
Electrical, API, 1901; master’s, mechanical, API, 1902;
doctorate, Union College
Sloan began his career in the utility industry, first at New Orleans Power and Light and
then at New York Edison, where he became president. In 1933, this bold and shrewd
businessman was asked to take the helm of the near-bankrupt Missouri-Kansas-Texas Lines,
better known as Katy. As president, he oversaw the rapid development of a railway that
grew in conjunction with the dynamic population explosion of the southwestern U.S. and
would eventually link the business centers of Kansas City, St. Louis, Oklahoma City, Dallas,
Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Galveston. Though his tenure as president
coincided with the depths of the depression, revenues increased three-fold, from $26 million
to $80 million. Harvard Business School considers him one of the 20th century’s great
American business leaders.
TRANSPORTATION
16
Figg leads a family of companies founded by her father, which is recognized internationally for its bridge
designs – famous for their sustainable, world-class bridges that are also cost-effective, innovative and
sensitive to environmental construction techniques. For the past 30 years, Figg Bridge Engineers, Inc.
has worked on bridges with construction values exceeding $8 billion. From the Seven Mile and Long Key
bridges in the Florida Keys to the I-275 Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa
and the Natchez Trace Parkway Arches near Nashville, Figg’s firm has created
bridges that capture the powers of imagination, function and technology. While
presenting the first Presidential Award for a bridge, Ronald Reagan said of Figg’s
Blue Ridge Parkway Viaduct around North Carolina’s Grandfather Mountain,
“. . . it belongs to and is part of the mountain.” Within days of the 2007
collapse of the I-35 West bridge linking Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Minnesota
Department of Transportation contracted with Flatiron-Manson, a joint venture
with Figg’s firm as the design engineer to create a new 10-lane interstate
replacement bridge. The new St. Anthony Falls Bridge was designed and built in
11 months. This innovative concrete bridge for the future sets a new example for
the advancement of bridges in America.
Photo courtesy of Figg Bridge Engineers, Inc.