Virginia Tech Honors Engineer George Middleton for his Career Achievements
BLACKSBURG, Va. May 8, 2008 George Middleton, Jr., who earned his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech in 1950, is a 2008 inductee into Virginia Tech's College of Engineering's Academy of Engineering Excellence. Middleton who resides in Norfolk, Va., joins a select group of 80 engineering alumni in the Virginia Tech academy.
ME Department Head, Ken Ball; George Midleton, Jr.;Dean of Engineering, Richard Benson.
.
Named after his father who founded the family business, E. G. Middleton, Inc. of Norfolk, Va., in 1920, the junior Middleton started his career at 14 working with a pole line gang, building electrical pole lines. He entered Virginia Tech as a 17-year-old freshman in 1944. As soon as his 18th birthday occurred, he enlisted in the U.S. Army to serve in World War II and was a motor sergeant in Bavaria.After 19 months as a soldier, he returned to finish his engineering education at Virginia Tech, a university where he says he was accepted because he had a high school diploma and $750 to pay the bills. A country boy with only 11 years of schooling, all in the same building, he felt that the classes at Virginia Tech were totally over his head. In fact, Virginia Tech's legendary engineering professor Bosco Rasche once asked him why he wanted to be a poor engineer when he could become a good plumber?He overcame the comment, and in 1950, Middleton earned his sheepskin and returned to Tidewater where he remains today. He grew his father's business, acting as an electrician by day and an estimator by night. Shrewdly, he moved the company towards heavy industrial work that had limited competition in Tidewater.His father was often uneasy with his son's work because some of the jobs were getting so far beyond his comfort level. Middleton says he would only allow his father to see selected parts of the mail in order to keep his heart rate at a normal pace. It must have worked because his father came into the office until he was 85, just three weeks short of his death.Ironically, today, Middleton acknowledges his son Rudy is taking jobs he would not have considered. Rudy, now president of the company, is the next Middleton who has entered the electrical contracting company into $25 million jobs without any qualms, making George Middleton realize the shoe is now on the other foot.Some of the company's largest and most challenging jobs include subcontracting on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, and providing electrical contracting needs for huge entities such as Old Dominion University, a host of area hospitals, Hoechst Celanese, Newport News Shipbuilding, Oceana Naval Air Station, and many, many more.
As his own reputation grew in the Norfolk area, Middleton found himself serving on various boards and volunteer positions. One particularly onerous one was the Norfolk City School Board at the height of integration. Mr. Middleton followed Vincent Thomas as the board chair during this particularly intense time when bussing was a dominant issue.
When he left that board in 1977 after eight years and one death threat, he became chairman of the Sentara Healthcare Board for the next two decades. He became a speaker for the healthcare system and found himself traveling throughout Virginia, up and down the east coast, and as far west as Iowa and Texas. Among his hundreds of speaking engagements, he spoke to such austere bodies as the sub-committee on Health of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee for the Association of American Medical Colleges and the House Appropriations Committee of the Virginia General Assembly.
His name became a magnet when one was looking for a volunteer. He served as chair of numerous other efforts including the National Congress of Hospital Governing Board of the American Hospital Association's Committee on Research and Development, the Research and Development Committee of the Greater Norfolk Corporation, Virginia Tech?s South Hampton Roads Campaign for Excellence, Virginia Tech's Engineering Advisory Board, and the Campaign for South Hampton Roads. He also served on several task forces for the Mayor of Norfolk.
Middleton has earned three Norfolk city awards: Citation for Outstanding Service in 1977, Business Appreciation Award in 1990, and First Citizen of Norfolk Award in 2002. In 1997, he received Virginia Tech's College of Engineering Outstanding Service Award. He has received several health care awards and was named the 1992 Tidewater Council of Boy Scouts-Good Scout. Today, Middleton and his wife of 22 years, Elizabeth, who has an art degree from Virginia Wesleyan College, enjoy taking trips that involve art galleries, most recently spending time at New York's Hudson Valley. They are members of the Virginia Tech Ut Prosim Society.