For Immediate Release: April 16th

TWCC Press Office: 806.288.7889, 2009

New York Construction Icon Receives Coveted "Distinguished Engineer" Award

NEW YORK CITY, April 16: Shelby Johnson, owner and President of Theodore Williams Construction Company (TWCC), has been chosen to receive the Distinguished Engineer Award from the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering at Texas Tech University.  Johnson is the first recipient from the college's Department of Engineering Technology and only the sixth woman to be honored since the awards began in 1967.

Responding to the announcement, Johnson said "In 1983, when I took my first construction engineering class, I was the only woman in the classroom.  I had no idea that women didn't do this type of work.  Nearly three decades later, to be the first woman construction engineer to receive this recognition is an honor for which I am particularly grateful."

Johnson was hired as a project Manager for TWCC in 1991.  She took ownership of the company 10 years later.  Under Shelby's leadership, TWCC became a certified Women-owned Business Enterprise in 2004 and continues that distinction to this day.

  Provost Robert Smith (left) and Dean Pamela     

Other notable recipients of the Distinguished Engineer award included Jerry S. Rawls, President and CEO of Finisar, as well as the namesake of the Jerry S. Rawls College of Business and Rawls golf Course; Rick Husband, Commander of the Columbia Space Shuttle on its final voyage; Edward E. Whitacre Jr. former Chairman and CEO of AT&T; and Fred Bucy, former President and CEO of Texas instruments.

This award comes under the leadership of Dean Pamela A. Eibeck, the first female dean to serve in the Whitacre College of Engineering to recognize our exceptional alumni," said Eibeck, "Our faculty and staff are proud of the accomplishments of our alumni, particularly those alumni like Shelby Johnson who are able to couple outstanding career success with significant contributions to society."

Founded in 1972, TWCC is a high quality, client-centered construction business based in Manhattan.  Specializing in corporate interiors, the firm serves Fortune 500 companies such as Smith Barney, Estee Lauder, Citigroup Global, Bristol Myers and Reuters.  In 2002, the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce awarded Williams its Annual Building Award.

Texas Tech began an engineering program in the fall of 1925.  The engineering college--which was recently named after Edward E. Whitacre Jr. has become internationally recognized for world-class nano-technology and pulsed power research.