Each year since 2001, the Auburn Alumni Association has recognized Auburn University graduates with its highest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award. The prestigious distinction honors recipients for their extraordinary achievements and service to the university. The 2015 Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to four individuals, including engineering graduates Samuel Ginn ’59 and Melissa Herkt ’77.
Samuel Ginn, ’59 industrial management and namesake of the College of Engineering, is a wireless communications industry leader. With more than four decades of telecommunications experience, his leadership and vision changed the course of the wireless industry. After serving with the Army Signal Corps, he began his career in 1960 as a student engineer with AT&T. He rose through the ranks at AT&T and in 1977 was appointed vice president of network operations for AT&T Long Lines. The following year Ginn joined Pacific Telephone Group as vice president, later taking the helm as chairman and CEO of Pacific Telesis. He restructured the company and in the early 1990s he planned the spinoff of the business’s wireless assets and launched AirTouch Communications, serving as its chair and CEO. AirTouch later merged with United Kingdom-based Vodafone Group, where Ginn assumed the position of chairman. During his tenure, Vodafone merged with Verizon to create Verizon Wireless, the largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States.
Ginn was awarded an honorary doctorate by Auburn in 1998 and served on the university’s board of trustees from 2005-13. He was instrumental in the creation of Auburn’s wireless engineering degree program and serves on its wireless advisory board. Ginn was inducted into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame in 1992 and named to the Wireless Hall of Fame in 2014 by the Wireless History Foundation.
Melissa Herkt is an authority in the field of project management, with industry experience ranging from petrochemicals to pharmaceuticals. She graduated with honors from Auburn in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and was Auburn’s first female engineering cooperative education student. Following graduation, she was employed by Exxon’s research and engineering unit and became the company’s first female engineer to be sent overseas. During her tenure at Exxon, Herkt was named as the company’s first female construction manager and was responsible for more than $700 million in projects while in France, Denmark and the United Kingdom. She then became president of Process Systems and Solutions, a division of Emerson Process Management. She directed all division work and oversaw more than 4,000 employees who produced almost $900 million in annual revenue.
Today, Herkt lives in Austin, Texas, and continues to impact young engineers through her commitment to engineering education. She serves on the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council and the Auburn University Foundation board, and provides scholarships to students pursuing a career in civil engineering through the Melissa Brown Herkt Endowment. As a result of her impressive achievements throughout her career, Herkt has earned numerous accolades including induction into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame in 2008 and the National Academy of Construction in 2009.
