By Jim Killian
Wiggins Hall A F a t h e r ’s L e g a c y “Many of the things that George Petrie said in the Auburn Creed I first learned from my father,” Dwight Wiggins recounts from his cell phone in the Atlanta airport. “Particularly what he said about work . . . ‘that this is a practical world and that I can count only on what I earn.’” Pictured on this page >>
Wiggins is on his way to Auburn for a board meeting of the Auburn University Foundation – one of a number of assignments the energetic oil executive has accepted for his alma mater. He has also served on the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council and the Engineering Campaign Leadership Team, a steering committee that helped raise a record $116.7 million for Auburn Engineering during the “It Begins at Auburn” campaign. When the 1962 mechanical engineering graduate arrives on campus, he is greeted by an ever-changing landscape from the campus that in his day was smaller, simpler and cooled by ceiling fans and transom windows instead of air conditioning. And now, behind Shelby Center, he sees the beginnings of a new building as bulldozers scrub red clay and construction crews twist rebar into steel bones. Scheduled for completion in the fall of 2011, the Dwight L. Wiggins Mechanical Engineering Hall will be joined by the College of Engineering’s Advanced Research Laboratory as Phase II of the Shelby Center, the $108 million, 331,000-square-foot complex that is reshaping the look and vision of Auburn Engineering.
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Wiggins Hall, future home to mechanical engineering; Dwight Wiggins with ME department chairs Jeff Suhling, left, and David Dyer, center; building namesake Dwight Wiggins Sr.
The new facility, made possible in part to a generous gift by Dwight and his wife Sally, will be dedicated to the namesake of the man who was Dwight’s major inspiration in life, and a beacon, he recalls, for integrity, courage and empathy. “I have always tried to live by his words to treat people with respect and not take credit for the work of others,” he explains. “I hope to share more than just a name with my father,’’ Wiggins adds. “During my career, I have counseled many others that opportunity knocks not just once, but many times throughout life if hard work, honesty and the highest ethical principles are your calling card. To the extent that I can do this, I hope the new ME building serves as something worthwhile to my dad’s memory.”