Class Acts

Former students are invited to submit items for the Class Acts section, which highlights professional achievements, as well as news briefs about marriages, births, retirements and whatever else former students care to share with the college community. News and photos may be e-mailed directly to the editor.

Six former students from Texas A&M’s College of Architecture who have risen to the top of their professional field while making significant public service contributions will be honored this fall as outstanding alumni.

The Texas A&M Department of Architecture is hosting a reception for former students and friends 6:30 p.m. Friday, June 21 at the Embassy Suites Hotel, 1420 Stout St. during the AIA national convention in Denver.

Funeral services for Thomas McKittrick ’91, who became an architecture educator at Texas A&M University in 1990 after a stellar 28-year career as a professional architect, is scheduled at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 27, 2013 at the Rice Chapel in Rice University’s student center.

Decades of leadership in the construction industry and support of education at Texas A&M have netted James R. Thompson ’68 the Distinguished Alumnus Award, the highest honor granted by The Association of Former Students.

Architecture firms are turning to video as a branding tool that combines a design philosophy and visuals of completed projects, said former Texas A&M environmental design student Andrew Pogue, ’07, a Denver-based videographer and photographer.

Students gain plenty of “real-world” experience in concrete construction management and the preservation of historic concrete structures while interning in one of two programs led by Tanya Wattenburg Komas ’05, an architecture Ph.D. graduate from Texas A&M University.

A list of the 25 most beautiful Houstonians, selected by H magazine for the depth of their commitment to community service, includes Ben Johnston ‘02, a former environmental design student at Texas A&M.

Anthony Haas ’79, a senior principal at WHR Architects and 2007 Outstanding Alumnus of the Texas A&M College of Architecture, has been elevated to the American Institute of Architects’ College of Fellows, one of the highest honors the AIA bestows on its members.

Celebrating its 20th year, Viz-a-GoGo, the annual showcase of student work from the visualization programs at Texas A&M University, took its audience on a time-traveling adventure — in a DeLorean, no less — with a series of interstitial stories paying tribute to the program's heritage.

A high-tech, permanent installation in the Memorial Student Center portraying Texas A&M students past and present, designed in part by a former environmental design student, was activated by university president R. Bowen Loftin during a ceremony Friday, Feb. 22, 2013.

Vanellope von Schweetz, the razor-tongued character in Disney Animation Studio's "Wreck-It Ralph," earned a 2013 Visual Effects Society Award nomination for the animators who brought her to life, including former vizzer Michelle Robinson.

Stephen Byrne '75, a popular Texas A&M construction science educator and construction industry leader who helped shaped the top rated construction science program at Texas A&M, passed away Feb. 11 from complications due to back surgery.

For as little as $1, anyone can help finance the development of Simple Bracket, a March Madness app that its developers, two former Texas A&M environmental design students, say will make it easy and fun to fill out brackets and compete with friends and family for the title of best bracket in the land.

Adrian Smith, designer of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and a champion of sustainable design, will receive an honorary doctor of letters degree from Texas A&M at spring commencement.