2010 Civil War

Football in December had to mean Civil War! The 2010 edition featured the Beavers fighting to get to .500 on the year and the U of 0 trying to punch their ticket to the National Championship game. We were happy to have kept our tickets although I would be lying if I hadn't thought about selling out to a friendly Duck Fan or two. If the shoes were on the other feet, I would want to be in Eugene to see the Beavs extend their record to 12-0.
The start of our trip to Reser was to hit the Crowbar downtown and eat our pregame salad.
We paused to take photos outside Reser. The scene on the street was great, there were a ton of tailgaters and many that came fror the party without tickets.
Kurt and Monica were excited about the game and ready. Susan and I had to scramble a bit for help with the kids, so we were relieved to be there.
The pregame had started a long time before we got there as the Ducks record attracted the ESPN GameDay crew with Lee Corso, Desmond Howard, and Kirk Herbstreit. The pregame started at 6 AM, so there was a lot of fun to be had early on in Corvallis. Seeing the action from home, the Memorial Union Quad was packed and they had separated Duck fans from Beavers, which was probably a pretty good idea.

This was Susan's second game this year with the first being against the Washington State Cougars, where the Beavs mailed in a pretty bad performance. We were hoping for the best, but expecting the worst given that the Ducks were the #1 team in the nation. Yet, as true Beaver Believers you have to be happy that we do as well as we do and that we are competitive and have hope for the future.
So, into the stadium we go with just a bit of business to finish before we jump in to the vat of Potato Salad.

Peter honored with an Oregon Stater Award

In an exciting personal achievement, I was awarded an Oregon Stater Award for Early Career Excellence. The Oregon Stater Awards have been around since 1998 and there have been about 400 awarded. This includes Civil, Constructuion, Environmental, Mechanical, Nuclear, and Industrial Engineering. Approximately a third of those are in the category of "Early Career", which is loosely defined as someone with less than 20 years. The other categories are more than 20 years, and Hall of Famer. Basically, there's one Civil in each category, so the University is selecting from about 1,400 engineers that could be awarded every year. So, it is quite an honor for me.
The visit to OSU included a tour of the new Kearney Hall, which was beautifully remodeled with donations from alumni like me.
It was a great dinner and the family joined me for a wonderful celebration at the Alumni Center. The kids needed a little time at Avery Park after I toured the "new" building, so we met downtown and then headed back to the Alumni Center for the dinner that night.

Here's what mom wrote to the family, excerpted from the program:

The Oregon State University College of Engineering introduced the Oregon Stater Awards in 1998 to honor outstanding Oregon Staters for their contributions to the engineering profession and OSU. Each year, on the Friday of National Engineers Week, the College inducts new Oregon Stater Awardees. Peter was inducted on February 20th, 2009 to the Council of Outstanding Early Career Engineers for Civil and Construction Engineering. Peter's citation read:

"After receiving a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at OSU, Peter Koonce attended graduate school at Texas A&M.
He has worked with the Texas Transportation Institute and is currently an associate engineer at Kittelson and Associates. Considered one of the nation's foremost authorities on bus and light rail transit signal priority, he has worked on transportation projects in areas such as Denver, South Florida, Baltimore, Portland, and Eugene. He has national visibility and credentials as a leader in transportation engineering and continues to develop the profession by providing training materials for various educational programs. Peter works with the OSU CE transportation faculty assisting in student field trips to Portland and continuing education programs offered on campus."