G.O.L.D. (Graduate of the Last Decade) Alumnus of the Year– Nejith Fernando, BSCIS 2005; MBA 2010
Indiana, and the YWCA. She also is one of the founding members of the Fort Wayne Derby Girls.
Nejith Fernando came to Indiana Tech from Sri Lanka. Upon graduation, he began working at Superior Essex in Fort Wayne as a senior scheduler. Fernando has been certified as a Six Sigma Green Belt. His career continues at Superior Essex where he has been rewarded for his excellent work with more responsibilities and now serves as a programmer analyst.
Alumni Volunteer of the Year – Max Baumgardner, BSME 1956
Fernando continues to give back to his alma mater in many ways, including involvement with the Career Center and serving as a member of the Alumni Board of Directors. He credits his education and experiences at Indiana Tech with helping him to achieve success in his career and wants to help others achieve their dreams through an excellent education at this great university.
CPS Alumna of the Year– Amber Recker, MBA 2005 Amber Recker has received several significant awards. In 2011 alone, she was honored as one of Northeast Indiana’s Top 40 under 40, was named one of the most influential women in social media for the State of Indiana, and was recognized as one of Northeast Indiana’s top 101 Connectors. Her career has been quite successful, too. Recker currently serves as director of marketing and development for Cancer Services of Northeast Indiana. Her responsibilities include marketing, public relations, fundraising, donor relations, and grant writing. Recker also is very involved with many community organizations. Recently, she was chosen as the first female president of Anthony Wayne Rotary. Because of her affection for and appreciation of her education at Indiana Tech, she has declared her term as Rotary president to be the “Year of the Warrior!” The other volunteer work in which she is involved includes Women United, Young Leaders of Northeast
Max Baumgardner also is a member of the Indiana Tech Athletic Hall of Fame, where he was inducted for his outstanding efforts as a varsity basketball and baseball player. As a fantastic wood-worker, Baumgardner took on a project to help beautify the Indiana Tech campus. He used wood recovered during the renovation of the Wilfred Uytengsu, Sr. Center to handcraft several benches and a picnic table which are now displayed under a gazebo next to the Uytengsu Center. Baumgardner is also a consistent donor to the university and helped to establish the Athletic Hall of Fame Scholarship. He continues to stay involved because he believes Tech is providing a real service to industry. What he values most about Indiana Tech is that it is a dynamic place where everyone he meets seems dedicated to serving the university and its students. During his career, Baumgardner worked at United Technologies’ Pratt & Whitney Aircraft as a junior design engineer for three years. He went on to work at General Electric Aircraft Engines in the area of senior design and management for exactly 25 years. He designed, tested, and managed “sales” to Aircraft, Navy and NASA. He also worked at General Motors Locomotive group as a director of engineers for six years, where he was in charge of all engineers for existing and new locomotives. Lastly, he worked for Tri-Counties Community Action Organization as a class instructor for low years, training low income people on starting a business. Baumgardner stays very involved in his community through Alpha Gamma Upsilon Fraternity; Farming Heritage in Franklin Grove, Ill.; Franklin Grove Area Historic Society; organizer of Reading of Declaration of Independence each July 4th; treasurer of their home Presbyterian Volume 9, Issue 1
Church; Whiteside County Barn Tour Committee; Lincoln Highway Association; Nachusa Grasslands Nature Conservatory; and the Model T Club of America.
Alumni Hall of Fame The Alumni Hall of Fame was initiated in 2005 so that each year we may honor an outstanding Indiana Tech graduate who has reached an exceptional level of professional achievement. This award is one of the highest that our university can bestow. Phillip Monteith was the 2012 inductee into the Hall of Fame. Monteith is a native of Jamaica who came to Fort Wayne to study engineering at Indiana Tech. Monteith sings the praises of Indiana Tech and its professors for being so real-world oriented. Having many opportunities to actually put into practice the theories being taught greatly enhanced his educational experience during his time at Tech. He said that he is forever thankful for what Indiana Tech afforded him in his life and would like to see the university continue to grow. After graduating from Indiana Tech in 1962, Monteith moved to Lancaster, Penn., where he began his career as an engineering trainee at RCA. There he used electron ballistics to improve the performance of image orthicons and vidicons for use in early video cameras. After his time at RCA, Monteith went to work for seven and a half years at Remington Shaver as a product development engineer designing and developing electric shavers, hair dryers, and food appliances. He then spent the next two years at Ford Motor Co. as a product development engineer. At Ford, his responsibilities included determining the viability of pre-production vehicles based on emission and fuel mileage prior to entering the regular production line. Monteith finished out the first phase of his working career serving 23 years as principal engineer for EG & G Rotron, where he developed power electronic drives and brushless DC motors. Continued on page 12 Fall 2012
11