SEAOI recognizes individual contributions to the field of engineering and to our organization with three special awards, given annually at our Awards Dinner: the John F. Parmer Award, the SEAOI Service Award, and the Young Engineer Award.
Nominations for the 2018 special awards are now being accepted. Read the 2018 Call for Entries for more information.
Special Awards will be presented at our Annual Awards Banquet on Saturday, June 9, 2018, which will be held at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in downtown Chicago.
John F. Parmer Award
John F. Parmer, a structural engineer, was one of the seven founders of SEAOI. In 1965 he, along with Frank Wells and Ken Naslund, came to talk to Nissim Eskenazi and George Ellis about starting a structural engineers association in Illinois. They were joined by Henry Miller and Frank Cooper. Within a very short period of time, SEAOI was founded. John F. Parmer became the first executive director and he, as well as his wife Chris, spent many hours working for SEAOI at 173 W. Madison Street in Chicago.
In the spring of 1977, at age 88, Mr. Parmer’s health began to fail and he found it necessary to retire from SEAOI. In June of that year, SEAOI presented him with an award, the first John F. Parmer Award, for service to the profession. When Mr. Parmer passed away in the fall of 1977, his son, John C. Parmer, and daughter-in-law, Carolyn Noonan Parmer, wanted to remember him by doing something special, on his behalf, for structural engineers. Therefore, in his honor, they presented SEAOI with a check for $500.00 to fund a John F. Parmer Award, honoring a structural engineer whose distinguished career was acknowledged by their peers to be an example of excellence.
John C. Parmer passed away in September, 2005. His family continues to support the John F. Parmer Award as they have done for more than 30 years. Both SEAOI and the Structural Engineers Foundation gratefully acknowledge the Parmer family’s longstanding support of the structural engineering profession.
John F. Parmer Award Recipients
2015 Ron Klemencic
2014 German R. Gurfinkel
2013 Burton A. Lewis
2012 Ian R. Chin
2011 Robert A. Halvorson
2010 John (Jack) E. Barrett
2009 D. Stanton Korista
2008 Chris Stefanos
2007 Mike Tylk
2006 Charles H. Thornton
2005 John M. Hanson
2004 Ralph S. Peck
2003 Mete A. Sozen
2002 John J. Zils
2001 Chester P. Seiss
2000 Jack Janney
1999 R. Shankar Nair
1998 Kolbjorn Saether
1997 W. Gene Corley
1996 Nissim I. Eskenazi
1995 Clyde N. Baker, Jr.
1994 Eli W. Cohen
1993 Dr. Sidney A. Guralnick
1992 Srinivasa “Hal” Iyengar
1991 Leslie E. Robertson
1990 William J. Hall
1989 Eivind Hognestad
1988 Richard A. Parmelee
1987 Fazlur Rahman Khan (posthumous)
1986 Narbey Kachaturian
1985 Nicholas A. Bilandic
1984 Harry Stavrides
1983 Harold R. Sandberg
1982 Edward S. Hoffman
1981 Walter E. Hanson
1980 Alfred Benesch and Carl Metz
1979 Max Zar
1978 John Gnaedinger
SEAOI Service Award
This award is given to individuals for outstanding contributions to SEAOI or to the profession of structural engineering in the State of Illinois. It is intended to be given to a person in the design, construction, or related field, who has achieved outstanding success and distinction in his or her career, and who has made a significant contribution to the advancement of structural engineering.
The candidate must be active in his or her field or retired for not more than two years. The is no limit to the number of awards nor to the time span between awards. Candidates for this Award do not have to be members of SEAOI, nor be a structural engineer.
SEAOI Service Award Recipients
2015 Laurence J. Dietrick
2014 David R. Bibbs
2013 Thomas F. McCluskey
2012 Bruce S. Kaskel
2011 Roger H. Reckers
2010 David Gustafson
2009 Carl F. Peterson
2008 Deborah Zroka
2007 Jon Boyd
2006 John J. Zils
2005 William D. Bast
2004 Larry R. Meyers
2003 Bryan Erler
2002 Benjamin R. Baer
2001 James J. Powers
2000 Frank Montana
1999 Michael Tylk
1998 William L. Lavicka
1997 Harry B. Kuchma
1996 Nancy L. Gavlin
1995 Timothy J. Kilberg
1994 Dr. W. Gene Corley
1993 Robert B. Johnson
1991 Robert W. Gerstner
1990 Clyde N. Baker, Jr.
1979 Joseph F. Fitzgerald
Outstanding Young Engineer Award
In 2008, SEAOI introduced an Outstanding Young Engineer Award to recognize a Young Engineer (aged 35 or younger) who is recognized by his or her peers for outstanding achievements in structural engineering. SEAOI members are invited to nominate their colleagues for this honor.
Outstanding Young Engineer Award Recipients
2015 Johann Aakre
2014 Brian Dekker; Christine Freisinger
2013 Sudhir Singamsethi
2012 Andrew Keaschall
2011 Nick Triandafilou
2010 Eric Fenske
2009 Robert Stadler
2008 James Pawlikowski
All photos from the 2015 Awards are courtesy of Anne Evans.