The University of Kentucky produces more than just NCAA men’s basketball champions. The university’s College of Engineering annually recognizes select alumni with induction into its Hall of Distinction, the highest level of alumni recognition granted by the college. Houston’s own Larry Whaley, a 1968 civil engineering graduate, was the 100th member to be inducted into the Hall of Distinction. Whaley is a founder and president and CEO of Haynes Whaley Associates.
Left to Right: University of Kentucky College of Engineering Dean Thomas Lester, Larry E. Whaley, P.E., and Dr. George Blandford, chair of the UK College of Engineering Department of Civil Engineering.
University of Kentucky College of Engineering Dean Thomas Lester presided over the induction ceremony at the university on April 20. Other 2012 Hall of Distinction inductees included Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch (electrical engineering, 1988), D.L. Lobb (civil engineering, 1979), and James W. McCurry (mechanical engineering, 1953). Following the ceremony, inductees and their guests gathered for a reception in the atrium of the Ralph G. Anderson Building. The south wall of the atrium is lined with the commemorative plaques featuring the images of each Hall of Distinction member.
Haynes Whaley is a 89-person structural engineering firm headquartered in Houston, with offices in Austin and Reston, VA. Under Whaley’s leadership, Haynes Whaley Associates has completed several prominent projects across the United States including The Menil Collection in Houston, Renzo Piano’s first project in the United States; Market Square in Washington, DC, one of the first buildings in the United States to use a hybrid post-tensioned flat plate structural system; Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Houston; the Coronado Springs Resort at DisneyWorld; the National Biodefense & Countermeasure Center at Fort Detrick, Maryland; and NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston. Current projects include ExxonMobil’s new corporate campus in North Houston and The University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston Jennie Sealy Replacement Hospital. Haynes Whaley projects earned seven national and local building industry awards in 2011 and more than 150 awards in the firm’s 35-year history.
Haynes Whaley Associates is committed to community involvement and is known for its generosity with their financial contributions to numerous organizations and with their time through their employee volunteer program.
Whaley has led Haynes Whaley Associates for 35 years and with strategic vision has enabled it to become one of the top structural engineering firms in the country. He was born in Maysville, Kentucky in 1946. After completing his bachelor degree at the University of Kentucky, Whaley moved to Houston for graduate studies at Rice University, where he earned his master degree. Larry married his wife Charlotte in 1975. They have two grown children: Katherine, a graduate of Rice University; and Jenna Beth, a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin. Larry and Charlotte currently reside in their family home in West Houston.
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