Alumni Magazine - Summer 2008 - (Page 13) Photo: Mark McCarty an exceptional year for higher education. “Truly this was a team effort from the chancellor, Board of Regents, governor and General Assembly. Higher education was made a priority this year for the state of Georgia,” Sheheane said. “The governor and state lawmakers clearly appreciate their investment in Georgia Tech and what that means in terms of a ripple effect to the state, the economy and quality-of-life issues.” The Undergraduate Learning Commons is an $85 million project that is planned as an academic centerpiece for Tech undergraduate students. It will be located in the surface parking lot adjacent to the Georgia Tech Library. The state will provide $60 million and private resources will contribute $25 million, Sheheane said. “The $10 million allows us to complete the design, engineering, site prep and even utility locations. Next year we hope to secure the construction funding,” he said. The facility is scheduled to open in 2011. The College of Architecture will receive $6.4 million to renovate the historic Hinman Building and portions of the east and west architecture buildings. The total costs will amount to $10 million, with the balance being raised from private contributions. The architecture project will provide more than 42,000 square feet of new instructional and research space. New Architecture Dean Alan Balfour has returned to Georgia Tech as the new dean of the College of Architecture. Balfour, who directed Tech’s architecture program from 1977 to 1987, filled the vacancy left by the March 2007 death of Thomas D. Galloway. For the past 13 years, Balfour has been dean of the architecture school at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He began his new role at Georgia Tech on July 1. During his presentation to the faculty in >>> Alan Balfour has been named the new dean of the College of Architecture. Lost Class Ring Resurfaces Off Coast of Florida After 50 Years Fifty years ago, alumnus David L. Perry was water-skiing off Crandon Beach in Miami when he lost his 1952 Georgia Tech class ring. An electrical engineering graduate, Perry remembers the overcast day in 1957 very well. He was on water skis standing in cool, waistdeep water, waiting to be pulled up. “My hands were shrunken from the cold,” he recalls. The boat took off, pulling him out of the water and “there went the ring.” In May, Jorge Balmori, a geography teacher in Miami, and his two sons were searching for underwater treasures with a metal detector about 100 feet offshore and the device went off. Balmori told the Miami Herald that his 20-year-old son began digging and found the golden ring with a red stone buried in more than a foot of sand. In addition to the Georgia Tech relief work, the ring bore the Sigma Chi insignia and the inscription D.L. Perry inside. Balmori was determined to return the Georgia Tech ring to its owner. With the assistance of fellow geography teacher Dennis Rodrigues and help from the Sigma Chi fraternity, the Balmoris found Perry, a retired Boeing aerospace manager and Naval Reserve captain, living in the Seattle suburb of Maple Valley. When he learned the ring had been found, Perry “was dumbfounded, but I knew it was my ring. I remembered losing it.” The event had received so much publicity that FedEx had its own video crew there to record the delivery. Local news media also featured the event. “The ring is in great shape,” Perry reports.“I take my hat off to Jorge Balmori and Dennis Rodrigues. I hope sometime soon to meet this goodhearted pair. It’s hard to believe that they would go to all that trouble to find me.” Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008 13
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