I believe in my Country, because it is a land of freedom and because it is my own home, and that I can best serve that country by “doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with my God.”

Behind every great country exists a complex defense system to protect its people from foreign adversaries. Norm Tew, ’82 and ’84 electrical engineering, has served as the engineer behind many of the nation’s best defense systems.

Tew recently announced his retirement after more than 39 years in defensive weapons systems development, where he serves as the vice president and general manager of the Missile and Weapon Systems division of Boeing Defense, Space and Security.

Tew was one of the chief engineers and project managers who created the architecture for the United States’ ballistic missile defense system. These complex space and terrestrial-based systems ensure that all states, including Alaska and Hawaii, are protected.

“We can all sleep well at night knowing that we are protected all day, every day. Many people don’t know about the missile defense system we have in place, but hopefully just the fact that we have it is enough to deter our enemies from attack,” Tew said.

Tew got his start at Auburn Engineering, learning the complexities of control systems and applied physics and mathematics in his engineering classes.

“The things I learned at Auburn have a real-world application in the workforce,” Tew said. “Probability and statistics, control systems, programming … all of these courses and skills I learned at Auburn helped me to create complex, physics-based simulations. What I learned at Auburn allowed me to do what I do today.”