2006 Spring Banquet

Distinguished Alumnus Award

Annual Spring Banquet

in the

The George W. Woodruff
School of Mechanical Engineering

Thursday, April 5, 2006
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 2006 Woodruff School Distinguished Alumnus

Pat Epps (BME 1956)

Pat Epps is a native of Athens, Georgia, and the youngest son of Ben T. Epps, who built and flew Georgia's first airplane in 1907. Pat was three years old when his father was killed in an airplane crash, but Pat's mother still encouraged her children to fly.  His five brothers and one of his three sisters received their pilot's license He took flying lessons from his brother, Doug, and soloed a Piper J-3 Cub in 1952.

Mr. Epps entered Georgia Tech, and graduated from Georgia Tech in 1956 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. During summers he worked in a machine shop in Yakima, Washington. After graduation, he headed west to work as a flight test engineer for Boeing in Seattle on the prototype of the 707, America's first jet airliner.

Mr. Epps entered the United State Air Force in 1957 and began flight training. As a distinguished graduate of Class 58L, he became the fifth of Ben Epps' sons to become a military pilot. Assigned to transports, he first was a Co-Pilot with MATS in the Pacific on the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter and later an Instructor Pilot in the Fairchild C-123 Provider. Epps has more than 9,000 flying hours as a commercial pilot with type ratings in the North American B-25 Mitchell, Douglas DC-3, Learjet, and Cessna Citation.

In June 1994, Mr. Epps piloted a friend's DC-3 to France. As he flew over Normandy, veteran World War II paratroopers jumped to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the D-Day landings. Epps has been in Rotary more than 30 years and on the Board of the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame since its inception.

For fun, he flies his aerobatic Beechcraft Bonanza in local air shows and tells tales of his adventures during an 11-year quest to recover the "Lost Squadron," the spectacular recovery of a WWII Lockheed P-38 Lightning buried beneath 265 feet of the Greenland ice cap.

Mr. Epps started Epps Aviation at Peachtree DeKalb Airport in Atlanta in 1965, growing it from nineteen to almost two hundred employee in 2006 He said, "I've worked for forty years with no promotion."

Pat Epps is married to his high school sweetheart, Ann Hailey. They reside in Atlanta and have three children who all have their pilot's license and work in the family business.

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.