Jack Carter—j.carter@dannenbaum.com

As many of you know, I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. When I arrived at Vanderbilt in 1964, it was obvious that my accent and perspective on issues were different than most of my fellow Tolman Hall dorm mates. As a Yankee, I was quickly nicknamed “Brooklyn”. Also, like most classmates in the engineering school, I had no idea what an engineer did. I graduated and was lucky enough to be accepted to Grad School at Vandy. This allowed me to miss another two years of Viet Nam, but most importantly, I met my bride of 38 years, Valerie Connell (BS’70).

After graduation, we spent 18 months in Okinawa (with the U.S. Army), perfected our golf games and traveled to much of the Orient. After the Army, Valerie and I moved to Houston and I began work at Dannenbaum Engineering Corporation. After all, I was a civil engineer, although I was still not sure exactly what that meant. I have been a partner for nearly thirty years, and as the Director of our Land Development Division, I get to hire young engineers; my favorites are, of course, from Vanderbilt.

Valerie and I have been blessed with two great kids. Laura (28) went to Sarah Lawrence. She has worked in advertising at J. Walter Thompson in New York City and is currently with GSD & M in Austin. You may have seen a pictorial history of Valerie and I in a DeBeers ad about two years ago. As a Sigma Nu brother commented, “What is Brooklyn doing in my Yachting Magazine”? Our son, Craig (24) graduated from Vandy in 2005 (Magna Cum Laude - go figure). He spent his first two years with Teach for America in the Watts section of Los Angeles. While Craig was at Vanderbilt, we made many trips to Nashville and got to relive many of our undergraduate experiences. To date, there are no spouses or grandchildren.

I have spent the last few years on the Vanderbilt Engineering Alumni Council. It has allowed me to learn about the school, its needs, the jaw dropping research that is going on, and an opportunity to add my two cents.