Thomas Golden Endows Engineering Chair at Yale
Thomas E. Golden, ‘51 B.E., ‘52 M.Eng., president of the Darien-based Thomas E. Golden Realty Co. and its affiliates, has endowed the Thomas E. Golden Professorship in Engineering at Yale University.
President Richard Levin said the gift fills an important need for new faculty to expand and improve teaching and research programs in the Department of Engineering.
“The Thomas E. Golden Professorship in Engineering speaks to the heart and soul of any great university, which is its distinguished faculty,” Levin said. “This new professorial chair is a recognition of Allan Bromley’s leadership these past six years, and a vote of confidence in the future of engineering at Yale.”
Bromley, the former Dean of Engineering, said at a reception announcing the new endowed chair that he met Golden soon after becoming dean.
“His (Golden’s) Yale education has served him extremely well and there is very little of it that he has forgotten,” said Bromley, the Sterling Professor of the Sciences. “Tom understands that a university is only as good as its faculty and that one of the most effective means of attracting world-class scholars is through the availability of endowed professorial chairs.”
Bromley stepped down from the position of Dean of the Faculty of Engineering in June 1999 after six years of distinguished service. Besides attracting outstanding senior and junior engineering faculty to Yale, he introduced two new programs, one in environmental engineering and one in biomedical engineering, both of which have attracted considerable student interest. The Golden gift will be a key component in this continuing growth and recognition of Yale as an important center for research in critical areas of technology.
The new endowed Golden professorship also will assist with another part of Yale’s strategy for its engineering program, and that is to be at the forefront of educating government and industry leaders in technology. This focus will continue under the new dean, Paul A. Fleury, formerly the Dean of Engineering at the University of New Mexico, who begins his term this month after a distinguished career of research and scientific administration at Bell Laboratories and Sandia National Laboratories.
Golden graduated with highest honors from LaSalle Military Academy in Oakdale, N.Y., in 1947 and enrolled in Yale School of Engineering with a special interest in civil engineering. As an undergraduate, Golden was president of the Yale chapter of Tau Beta Pi and was first string pitcher for the Silliman College baseball team.
He graduated with highest honors in 1951, was awarded the Yale Engineering High Scholarship Prize, and received his ROTC commissars from the Yale Field Artillery program. The following year, Golden completed requirements for a Master of Civil Engineering degree and entered military service.
Golden served with the Alaska District Office of the Corps of Engineers as resident engineer during the construction of the Army Arctic Center. After completion of his military service, he was hired as a professional engineer with a major New York construction firm and rapidly rose to senior management. From there, Golden became executive vice president of an international marine construction firm. He has been president of Thomas E. Golden Realty for 30 years.
In addition to a wide range of community programs in the Darien area, Golden is a retired Reserve Officer of the New York District Corps of Engineers. He received a special commendation from the Corps of Engineers for his work on flood damage restoration in the greater New York area during the 1955-56 hurricane.
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