Annual Spring Banquet

in the

The George W. Woodruff
School of Mechanical Engineering

Thursday, April 4, 2002
6:00 p.m.
Student Center Ballroom
Georgia Institute of Technology

This event is planned and organized by the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering Student Advisory Committee (WSSAC) and is sponsored by the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

THE 2002 WOODRUFF SCHOOL
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS
Ralph W. Pries (BSME 1940)

Ralph W. Pries received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech in 1940. Mr. Pries was president of Tau Epsilon Phi Fraternity, active with ROTC, and graduated as a 2nd lieutenant. Upon graduation, he joined National Theatre Supply Company in San Francisco, a motion picture equipment company. A year later, he was promoted to Branch Manager in Des Moines, Iowa, and in the following year to Manager of the Philadelphia branch.

He left National Theatre Supply for a position as vice president of ABC Consolidated Corporation, a national food services firm. When ABC merged with the Ogden Corporation, Mr. Pries was named president of the new Ogden Foodservice Corporation, which has operations throughout the U.S. After retiring, he became president of MEDIQ/PRN Life Support Services, Inc., a national medical equipment company that rents ventilators and other life-support equipment to hospitals.

Mr. Pries is very active in philanthropic organizations. He is past president of Variety Clubs International, a Trustee of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, director of St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, United Hospitals Corporation, Hahnaman University Hospital, and the Moss Rehabilitation Hospital, and a trustee of Motion Picture Pioneers.

Mr. Pries was honored with the Benjamin Franklin Award for Charitable and Humanitarian Endeavors in 1965 and the March of Dimes Distinguished Service Award in 1967. He received the State of Israel Tower of David Award in 1969 and the Masada Award in 1973. In 2001, Mr. Pries was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by Firstrust Bank, which he has served as a director for forty years.

Mr. Pries has been a consistent contributor to Georgia Tech's annual giving campaigns for more than forty years. He was president of the Georgia Tech Club of Philadelphia, and during the Capital Campaign he made a substantial contribution to Georgia Tech.

Mr. Pries was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1919 and resides in Narberth, Pennsylvania. He has been married to Jessie for fifty-nine years; they have three children and three grandchildren.

About the Award

The Woodruff School Distinguished Alumnus Award was inaugurated in 1989 to recognize an outstanding alumnus of the Woodruff School. The names of the winners are on permanent display in the lobby of the MRDC Building at Georgia Tech.