“I have always been proud of my Purdue education and share what I believe is industry's view that it is the No. 1 engineering school in the nation, if not the world.”
Wayne Hawk graduated from Purdue University in 1951 with a B.S. in aeronautical engineering. He followed up with an M.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Southern California on a fully funded Hughes R&D Lab Fellowship.
Hawk served as Acme Electric Corporation's Chairman and CEO until retiring in Oct. 1994. Acme designed and manufactured switch mode power supplies for the computer industry and zero maintenance sealed nickel cadmium batteries for the aerospace industry.
Prior to that, he was chairman and board member of Comptek Research Corp. (1983-87), and executive vice president and director of Moog Inc. and president of controls group for Moog Inc. (1957-81). During his tenure, Moog grew from $5 million in annual sales to over $200 million. Among other products, Moog designed and manufactured electrohydraulic, electropneumatic and electromechanical control systems for aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, ships and ground vehicles. From 1956-57, Hawk worked at Goodyear Aircraft Corp., where he was project engineer on the Wright Field-sponsored project to develop the first clamshell thrust reverser. First demonstrated on a G.E. J-47 in summer 1956, it is now used on all passenger jets.
Hawk's patents and inventions include control valves for satellites, missiles and machine tools. Besides those already listed, he has held corporate directorships for Manufacturer's Hanover Bank, Astronics Luminescent, Learfan Corp. and Century Aircraft.