Welcome

Ron Pingel is Chemical Engineering's recipient of the 2008 College of Engineering Outstanding Alumni Award.

The Oustanding Engineering Alumni Award recognizes College of Engineering graduates who have reached exceptional levels of professional achievement. The College values their example, dedication, and loyalty. This annual tradition of honoring the College's outstanding alumni began in 1966.

About Ron Pingel

Ron Pingel started college later than most of his high school classmates because he joined the Navy during the Vietnam War and served six years as a nuclear reactor operator on ballistic missle submarines.

"I learned from that exprience that I really liked operating an engineering plant," the Michigan native recalls.

Ron was honorably discharged and immediately enrolled at Penn State's Delaware County campus, now Penn State Brandywine.

"At first, the concept of going back to college was intimidating," he admits. "But I knew that if I worked hard, I could get it done."

His desire for a versatile major eventually led him to chemical engineering, which supported a dynamic and growing industry.

When he arrived at University Park, he was fortunate enough to be mentored by Larry Duda, who later became head of chemical engineering.

It was Duda's relationship with Dow that influenced Ron to join the company. For Ron, it proved to be a fateful decision; he's still with Dow more than three decades later.

"The reason why I stayed with Dow is that it offered me diverse growth experiences so I didn't need to change companies," he explains. "I was always challenged. I was always turned on by my assignments.

Ron's past responsibilities with Dow included research and development, environmental health and safety, mergers and acquisitions, and a number of corporate roles.

Looking back on his career, he says he's most proud of his work in environmental health and safety during the 1990s.

"We realized that we weren't an island," Ron says of the company. He launched the "Responsible Care" initiative within Dow and participated in many industry-wide task forces. "We had to earn the privilege to grow in communities."

As part of the initiative, Dow put forth aggresive 10-year goals of targeting safe operations, environmental impact, product stewardship, sustainability, and openness.

"We did amazingly well against those goals," Ron says. "When we put them in place, we had no map on how we could achieve them. Now a lot of those goals are industry-wide priorities."

Today, Ron continues his environmental effort as he works with clean water at Dow Water Solutions.

Ron resides with his wife, Laura, in Beford, NH. The couple has three sons, Adam, Ashley, and Veryl, and two grandchildren.