Lamar Dunn, founder and former board chairman of Lamar Dunn & Associates, Inc. (LDA Engineering), recently received two awards for lifetime achievement in civil and environmental engineering.
The Tennessee Engineering Center Trustees named Dunn to the Wall of Honor for more than 50 years of innovation in impacting the built environment. Dunn’s name will be displayed on the Wall of Honor at the Tennessee Engineering Center at the Adventure Science Center in Nashville. LDA Engineering also made a donation to the Tennessee Engineering Center in Dunn’s name in honor of his contributions to the engineering profession.
“For more than 50 years, Lamar Dunn has shaped the field of civil and environmental engineering,” LDA Engineering CEO Jason Brooks said. “He dedicated his life toward advancing the engineering industry and creating innovative new techniques and policies. LDA will honor his legacy by continuing to provide excellent, trusted service to our clients.”
Dunn was also honored with the Tennessee Technological University Engineer of Distinction award during the university’s February celebration of National Engineers Week. Since 1981, Tennessee Tech has recognized with a lifetime achievement award two engineering alumni whose careers have contributed to or reflected credit on the college’s academic program. Dunn is a 1964 civil engineering graduate.
Dunn spent the first nine years of his career in the Tennessee Department of Public Health as a sanitary engineer. After earning his master’s degree at Vanderbilt University in 1967, the state moved him to Knoxville to open the first office for environmental oversight outside of the capital. Dunn managed 29 counties east of Nashville for the state of Tennessee.
In 1973, Dunn began working for Russell and Axon, an international engineering firm ranked 127th in the Engineering New Record’s list of largest engineering firms in the United States at the time. He opened the firm’s Knoxville office with one engineer and a secretary, and, within three years, the office had grown to 75 employees handling projects as far east as Washington, D.C. and mid-North Carolina and as far west in Tennessee as Union City.
In 1982, founded Lamar Dunn & Associates, Inc., a small company by design providing regionally specialized, innovative engineering solutions to clients in East Tennessee. LDA Engineering currently has 15 licensed engineers in offices in Knoxville, Chattanooga and Johnson City. The firm provides engineering and consulting throughout Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama, Carolinas and Georgia and even extends its services to Iraq, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Canada.
“Thanks to Lamar’s reputation for innovation, LDA Engineering has become a regional firm with a global footprint,” Brooks said.
Dunn is a longtime member of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) and has represented Tennessee on the national ACEC on two separate occasions. He is currently active on ACEC’s national Environment and Energy Committee.
Over the years, LDA Engineering’s projects have gained statewide and national accolades. The Morristown, Tenn., water treatment plant received an engineering excellence award for its granular carbon contact bed as a separate unit process, the first of its kind in Tennessee. Dunn also designed the first membrane water treatment plant in Tennessee, which received a National Grand Award for Engineering Excellence.
LDA also received ACEC awards for the Ring Road Program Management in Kirkuk, Iraq; Lincoln Memorial University Water Treatment Plant in Harrogate, Tenn.; West Knox Utility District Water Treatment Plant in Knoxville, Tenn.; Morris Boulevard Sewer Rehabilitation in Morristown, Tenn.; Tennessee School for the Deaf Ward Building HVAC in Knoxville; and the Huntsville Utility District Raw Water Impoundment in Huntsville, Tenn.
Dunn is a licensed engineer in 10 states and has completed the ACEC Senior Executives Institute conducted jointly by the Brookings Institute and the Advance Management Institute. He is a lifetime member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Water Works Association and the Water Environment Federation and has represented the United States on the Business Practice Committee in the international consulting engineering organization, FIDIC. He has served for 10 years on the board of directors for Maryville College, as well as serving on the advisory board for Tennessee Tech.
Dunn resides in Maryville, Tenn., with his wife, Mary Ann. He has three children, Pat, Beth and Katie, and five grandchildren, Meghan, Sean, Brad, Casey and Aiden.
ABOUT LDA ENGINEERING
Lamar Dunn & Associates, Inc. (LDA Engineering) is an employee-owned firm based in Knoxville, Chattanooga and Johnson City with a 30-year history of excellence in delivering engineering, operational and management solutions to water, wastewater and stormwater issues. By focusing on a specific footprint in Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, Southeast Kentucky, West North Carolina and North Georgia, LDA Engineering provides clients with highly specialized regional engineering expertise and hands-on involvement by principal staff. Founded by Lamar Dunn in 1982, LDA Engineering’s innovative projects continually earn regional and national recognition from industry organizations, such as the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC).
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For more information,
Contact: Jennifer Lawson
Moxley Carmichael
(865) 544-0088