Distinguished Alumni Award Winner Profile

Clifford V. Smith, Jr., 54BSCE, has had a distinguished career as an engineer and administrator, serving in academia, government, and industry. Now president of the General Electric Foundation, Smith was chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee from 1986-1990. Previously, he held numerous positions with the Oregon State System of Higher Education, including serving as vice president for administration at Oregon State University. Later, he held a joint appointment as director of that university's Radiation Center, director of the Institute for Nuclear Science and Engineering, and head of the Department of Nuclear Engineering. He has held positions ranging from instructor to professor of engineering at several other universities.

In government, Smith served at the assistant secretary level at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and as a regional and deputy regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in both Seattle and Boston. For his outstanding work at the EPA, Smith won that agency's highest award, the Gold Meal for Exceptional Service.

In industry, Smith worked as an executive engineer, program manager, and business development manager for the Bechtel Corporation, one of the world's premier firms dedicated to the construction of large engineering projects.

Though a native of Washington, D.C., Smith comes from a family of dedicated Hawkeyes. His father, Clifford V. Smith, Sr., earned an engineering degree from the UI in 1925, while two of his three daughters continued the Iowa family tradition in the 1970s. He has been married to Nina Marie Singleton Smith for 39 years and they are members of the Alumni Association and the UI foundation's Presidents Club.