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Elmer L. Deicke
BSCE'18
Alumni Achievement Award

Elmer L. Deicke's remarkable career in the steel construction industry has spanned nearly 70 years. He retired from six-days-a-week active engineering sales and practice in 1982 after 63 years with Stupp Bros. Bridge and Iron Company. It is not surprising then that he was the principal designer if innumerable major structures, holds a patented connection for special roof designs, and has guided a major Midwestern industry that shaped the metropolitan area's civil engineering environment.

Mr. Deicke served in the U.S. Army briefly after graduation before joining Stupp Bros., in which a college classmate was a principal. He retired in December 1982 as senior vice president-sales, but remains a director and a consultant to the company.

In addition to his unstinting devotion to business, Mr. Deicke played an active part in professional societies and for several decades was a tireless friend and fund-raiser for the School of Engineering. He was a founding member of its Century Club.


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Leon R. Strauss
BSArchE'49
Alumni Achievement Award

Leon R. Strauss is the founder and President of the Pantheon Corporation in St. Louis, Missouri. His extensive career includes notable contributions to all aspects of construction and urban development.

Mr. Strauss received a B.S. in architectural engineering from Washington University in 1949. Immediately following graduation, he was employed by the State of Israel in the Town Planning Department in Jerusalem designing villages for new immigrants. The following year, Mr. Strauss returned to the United States and joined Millstone Construction, Inc. in St. Louis. He was Vice-President of Millstone Construction in 1959, a position he held until leaving the frim to form Pantheon Corporation in 1972. His work at Millstone Construction encompassed a full range of operating responsibilities including assisting in the direction and development of such projects in St. Louis as the Downton Sports Stadium, Northwest Plaza Shopping Center, the new Federal Building and the Laclede Town townhouses project in the Millcreak Urban Renewal Area.

Over the last eleven years, Mr. Strauss, as President of Pantheon Corporation, has produced $110 million worth of construction in building and renovation projects in the city of St. Louis. Two of these special projects include the 100 acre, $75 million DeBaliviere Plaza development and the restoration of the "Fabulous" Fox Theatre.

An active member of the Associated General Contractors (AGC), he has served as president of the St. Louis AGC, and as a member of the Labor and Executive Committees.

Mr. Strauss is currently a member of the Board of Director for the St. Louis Symphony, the St. Louis Opera, the Loretto-Hilton Repertory Theatre, and the Mercantile Commerce Trust Company.


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John F. Yardley
MSAM'50
Alumni Achievement Award

For the past 35 years, John F. Yardley has been on the forefront of U.S. space technology as an engineer and manager. He was assigned to early space projects by McDonnell Aircraft and McDonnell Douglas Astronautics and he spent seven years as a top administrator with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Since 1981 he has been president of McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company.

 

After earning an undergraduate degree in aeronautical engineering from Iowa State University, Mr. Yardley spent three years in the U.S. Navy before joining McDonnell as a stress analyst. Concurrently, he did graduate work in applied mechanics at Washington University. From 1958 to 1966 he was McDonnell project engineer and technical director on the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft. From 1974 to 1981 he was NASA associate administrator for Space Transportation Systems. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering as well as a fellow of the American Astronautical Society and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is the recipient of top awards from both NASA and the institute.