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Engineer's Day Award- 1977
  Prof. George W. Washa, 68,
whose career spans 47 years at
University of Wisconsin-Madison,
was honored October 7 as the
University's outstanding teacher of
engineering students for 1977.
  Washa accepted the Benjamin
Smith Reynolds Award at the an-
nual Engineers Day banquet from
Edward E. Hales, president of the
UW System Board of Regents. The
honor carries a $1,500 award.
  "He sets an example of high
professional integrity and demands
the same high level performance of
his students," Hales said in remarks
prepared  for the  ceremony   at
Union South.
  Washa received his bachelor's and
master's degrees in civil engineering
from UW in 1930 and 1932, and
stayed to receive his doctorate in
engineering  mechanics in  1938.
With the exception of two summer
jobs during the 1930s, he has been
an instructor or professor within
the College of Engineering here
continuously since 1930.
  His teaching within the depart-
ment of engineering mechanics has
ranged ovQr construction materials,
soil mechanics, statics and dyna-
mics. More than 75 graduate stu-
dents have received higher level
degrees under his direct tutelage.
Looking to the future, he has
Edward E. Hale, President of the UW Board of Regents, presents Professor
George W. Washa with the Benjamin Smith Reynolds Award for the
outstanding teacher of engineering students of 1977.
participated in a hundred-year long
research project on the strength of
concrete which isn't to be com-
pleted until well into the 21st
century.
  Washa is listed in a dozen "Who's
Who" type books and has belonged
to more than a dozen professional
societies, contributed to four books
and published more than two dozen
articles. His numerous campus com-
mittee memberships have included
being chairman of the search and
screen committee to find the en-
gineering dean, chairman of the
University public functions com-
mittee and member of the student
life and interests committee.
  The teaching award has been
presented annually since 1955 and
is named after the co-founder of
the Burgess Battery Co. Reynolds, a
member of the University's Board
of Visitors, was presented a distin-
guished service citation by the Col-
lege of Engineering two years be-
fore his death in 1954. The annual
recipient of the Reynolds award is
selected by an engineering faculty
committee.
   Nine men also received distin-
guished service citations on Engi-
neers Day, October 7, at the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin-Madison.
   Eight of the nine are graduates of
the UW-Madison College of Engi-
neering; the ninth taught physics at
the University for 17 years. The
UW graduates who will be cited for
their outstanding records in engi-
neering are:
   -Thomas F. Airis, 71, an Eau
Claire native, for public works
construction. A former member of
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
he was in charge of constructing the
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