November 4, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Amy Hewes
College of Engineering
(805) 756-6402
ahewes@calpoly.edu
Cal Poly College of Engineering to Name
New Engineering Building
For Refrigeration Pioneer Monday
SAN LUIS OBISPO - Cal Poly will memorialize a distinguished alumnus Monday, Nov. 14, with a ceremony to name a new engineering building after him.
The "Grant M. Brown Engineering Building," located at the corner of California Boulevard and Highland Drive, will be officially named at the 11 a.m. event in honor of the generous donations of the Ross M. Brown Family Foundation.
The Brown Family gift includes $200,000 to fund student scholarships and $300,000 in equipment. In addition, the gift provides $2 million to endow the James L. Bartlett Jr. Professorship to promote multidisciplinary project-based learning. Over 60 family members and university representatives will be on hand for the dedication.
The Grant M. Brown Engineering Building contains approximately 32,480 square feet. Departments housed in the building include aerospace engineering, industrial and manufacturing engineering, and materials engineering. It also houses high-tech laboratories for advanced manufacturing, materials removal, electronic fabrication and other programs.
"Cal Poly's College of Engineering expresses its appreciation to the Brown family for this generous donation that enables us to sustain and enhance the quality of engineering education," says Dean Peter Y. Lee.
About Grant M. Brown:
A 1960 Cal Poly air conditioning and refrigeration-engineering (ACRE)
alumnus, Grant M. Brown fulfilled the promise of Cal Poly's learn-by-doing
engineering education with a distinguished career. He founded two
companies, ERS (Engineering Refrigeration Systems) and Phoenix Refrigeration
Systems, Inc. Brown led Phoenix to become number one in U.S. systems
sales. The company pioneered and manufactured the rooftop condensing
units and electrical houses used by the supermarket industry, and
subsequently merged with Hill Refrigeration. Today it is one of
only a handful of suppliers of refrigerated supermarket display
cases.
About James L. Bartlett:
The James L. Bartlett, Jr. Professorship acknowledges the engineer
who was a mentor to Ross Brown (Grant M. Brown's brother). Engineer-entrepreneur
Bartlett has spent more than six decades transforming his technical
expertise and business experience into pioneering developments.
After earning his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, he held research positions with
several companies He helped found Cosmodyne Corp., which became
one of the nation's largest manufacturers of equipment for storing,
transporting and handling liquefied gases. He later became president
and owner of Hydranautics, a manufacturer of equipment for offshore
drilling rigs, shipyards and reverse osmosis desalination. In 1984,
Bartlett founded his own company, Bardex Corp., to make equipment
for offshore platforms and heavy-load moving. Bartlett later formed
two new companies to make semipermeable membranes for ultrafiltration,
nanofiltration, and reverse osmosis. More recently, he helped in
the formation of Pacific Design Technologies Inc., a company focused
on the design and construction of space-cooling systems.
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