Department Presents First Alumni Award to Herb Burton

Herb Burton, a retired executive at AT&T Bell Laboratories, has received the 2016 Alumni of the Year Award from the UA department of systems and industrial engineering.

“Herb has been a long and strong supporter of the department, College and University,” said Young-Jun Son, professor and department head, who presented the award at SIE’s precommencement ceremony on campus in May.  

Burton graduated in 1960 as the only recipient of a UA bachelor’s degree in engineering mathematics. A. Wayne Wymore, considered the father of systems engineering, directed that program, which in 1961 became the department of systems engineering, the first accredited systems engineering program in the nation. Wymore considered Burton its first graduate.