The Benjamin G. Lamme Meritorious Achievement Medal
Benjamin G. Lamme, ME 1888, achieved international acclaim as a pioneering inventor and engineer for the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company at Pittsburgh. For 21 years he served as chief engineer for Westinghouse. Among his 162 patents were new inventions on railway motors, induction motors, converters, and the developments pertaining to the first Niagara Falls power system. In his will he provided that a gold medal be presented annually to a technical graduate of his alma mater for "meritorious achievement in engineering."
Alumni Award Nomination Form and Information
2007 Benjamin G. Lamme Meritorious Achievement Medal Recipient
Charles D. Martin
Chuck Martin is the chairman, CEO and chief investment officer of Mont Pelerin Capital, an investment management firm that he founded in 2005. The firm manages two long-short hedge funds in the public equities market. He graduated from Ohio State University in 1960 with a bachelor of science degree in engineering physics.
Early in his career, Martin founded the venture capital firm Enterprise Partners and served as its managing partner until his retirement in 1999. During his tenure, Enterprise Partners consistently ranked as one of the top performing venture capital firms in America and grew to be the largest venture capital firm in Southern California. Martin is also the co-founder of Westar Capital, a private leveraged buyout/recap investment firm, and served as a general partner of that firm from its formation until 2000, when he retired as its partner emeritus.
For 25 years, Martin was a co-owner and served on the board of Vedax Sciences Corp., the parent company of TEC International, the largest membership organization in the world for CEOs (12,000 members in nine countries). Martin has served on the board of directors of 46 public and private companies spanning more than 35 years and has completed more than 90 mergers and acquisitions, as well as countless corporate financing transactions. He has served as CEO or vice president of corporate development for various computer systems and software companies.
In 2003, Martin was appointed to serve on the Regent’s Investment Advisory Committee for the University of California. He is a trustee of UC-Irvine and Chapman University, serves on the Finance and Investment Committee for UC-Irvine and served as chairman of the Investment Committee for Chapman University, during which time the investment returns doubled the size of the endowment, exclusive of contributions. He is the author of “The Little Black Book: A Guide to Successful Investing in the Stock Market.”
The Benjamin G. Lamme Meritorious Achievement Medal Past Recipients
| Year | Recipient | Gradutaion Department/Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Charles Martin | EngPhysics 1960 |
| 2006 | William Fillmore | ME 36 |
| 2005 | George Hoddy | EE 26 |
| 2004 | Robert Nerem | AAE 61, 64 |
| 2003 | Warren Bulman | EE 58 |
| 2002 | O. Lester Smithers | CHE 63 |
| 2001 | Daniel Kimmet | MET 71 ME 72 |
| 2000 | Robert Friedman | EE 60 |
| 1999 | Larry Hench | CER 64 |
| 1998 | Ralph Rockow | ME 58 |
| 1997 | Thomas Hanratty | CE 50 |
| 1996 | Dr. Eugene Jarrett | CHE 66, 68 |
| 1995 | Frank Schuh | CHE 65 |
| 1994 | Jason Lemon | ME 62 |
| 1993 | John Hirth | MET 59 |
| 1992 | William Lowrie | CHE 66 |
| 1991 | Marlin Thurston | EE 55 |
| 1990 | Paul Torgersen | IE 56, 59 |
| 1989 | Gary Kimmet | ME 66, 69 |
| 1988 | John Moll | Eng Phys, EE 43, 52 |
| 1987 | Robert Shurtz | MIN 37 |
| 1985 | Ted Harley | CER 43 |
| 1984 | Richard Morrow | MIN, PET 48 |
| 1983 | Harold Sorgenti | CHE 59 |
| 1982 | Cloyd Reeg | CHE 48 |
| 1981 | Sun Chun | CHE 64 |
| 1980 | Stanley Harrison | EE 58 |
| 1977 | Donald Garrett | CHE 50 |
| 1976 | Rupert Atkin | ME 41 |
| 1975 | Donald Rhodes | EE 45 |
| 1974 | John White | ME 52 |