{"id":659,"date":"2021-05-14T09:43:59","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T09:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/?p=659"},"modified":"2021-05-24T20:34:56","modified_gmt":"2021-05-24T20:34:56","slug":"engineering-program-rockets-to-new-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/2021\/featured-stories\/engineering-program-rockets-to-new-heights\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineering Program Rockets to New Heights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Blog_600x300_Engineering\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Adding up the figures, mathematician and coastal expert Lee Butler \u201960, saw that the time had come in his financial life to give back by \u201cpaying it forward\u201d for the scholarship support he had received from University of St. Thomas. \u201cI want to give this generation of students, who want to pursue their aspiration of becoming an engineer, the opportunity to fulfill their dreams,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Butler\u2019s generous gift of $200,000 establishes the Braden-Butler Endowed Scholarship to help Hispanic and first-generation students in engineering to have a shot at a good life and career like his. The monies will also support students by helping the UST STEM Center match a $50,000 challenge grant from the Department of Education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scholarship fund honors Butler\u2019s mentor, UST Physics Professor and President Emeritus Fr. Patrick Braden, CSB, who inspired him in class and became a friend all these 60 years until his death in 2016. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Butler loves the stories of his time at St. Thomas and with Fr. Braden. One special story is about a rocket club formed on campus after Russia launched Sputnik in the late \u201950s. Energized, Butler commandeered a slim fire-extinguisher from his father, and the physics students made a nose cone and tail turning it into a rocket. Launching that rocket had its glories and mishaps, which Butler confesses might have blown a hole through the roof of the physics lab, had it not been for one steadfast clamp and the grace of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted to measure the rocket\u2019s thrust in the lab,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Houstonian, Butler attended St. Thomas High School before UST. He entered the University with a full-ride scholarship and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Physics and Mathematics. He went on to earn a Master\u2019s degree in Mathematics from University of North Carolina and entered a Ph.D program at University of Texas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Butler\u2019s career started at NASA and involved calculations in celestial mechanics. Recalling a highlight, he quips, \u201cI lunched with astronauts in the cafeteria.\u201d He later moved westward to California with the help of UST Professor John Freeman, where his \u201creal career with a marine engineering firm began.\u201d There he met some of the best coastal engineers in the country and later moved with colleagues to establish the firm Tetra Tech, Inc. He learned coastal engineering and used his applied math skills to numerically solve problems in wave theory, beach erosion, storms and tides. After a 25-year stint with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, Mississippi, where he won the U.S.. Army Research and Development Award in 1984, he moved back to Texas near Wimberley and established Veritech Enterprises LLC. Veritech develops and markets coastal engineering software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So now, he has come full circle. Along with his financial philanthropy, his ambition is to recruit new students to UST. Butler\u2019s gift makes him the first major donor in the newly established engineering program at UST. \u201cBesides the faculty, fellow students and overall college experience,\u201d Butler said, \u201cI treasure the breadth of knowledge and spiritual guidance that have helped me throughout my career and life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe hopes his gift will inspire his contemporaries to also make a charitable donation to UST for engineering student scholarships and more.\u201d   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about the new engineering programs at UST:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chemical: <\/em><\/strong>stthom.edu\/CHE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electrical: <\/em><\/strong>stthom.edu\/ELE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Trio_Rocket1\"
Lee Butler \u201960, Fr. Patrick Braden and Charles Deiterich \u201860 with home-made rocket.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

“I want to give this generation of students, who want to pursue their aspiration of becoming an engineer, the opportunity to fulfill their dreams.”<\/strong>
– Lee Butler ’60<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adding up the figures, mathematician and coastal expert Lee Butler \u201960 saw the time had come in his financial life to give back by \u201cpaying it forward\u201d for the scholarship support he had received from UST. 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