Dr. Kenneth Haughton
For 2023, a special award was given out. The Distinguished Service Award recognizes an individual who has attained distinction through many years of service and generosity to the School of Engineering and to the engineering profession.
The 2023 Distinguished Service Award is awarded to Dr. Kenneth Haughton for his significant contributions to the School of Engineering and the industry. Trained as a mechanical engineer, he received an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, a Master’s degree from Iowa State College, and a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1982.
Dr. Haughton was the School of Engineering’s third Dean, serving from 1982 to 1989. Under his leadership, the School helped students take advantage of the opportunities abounding in Silicon Valley. He brought leading edge technology to the School through innovative technical centers including, the Institute of Information Storage Technology, which was established in 1984 to provide instruction in mass data storage. In 1985, he helped establish an emerging computer lab called the Design Center, known today as the Engineering Computing Center, opened with the help of a donation from Hewlett-Packard. And in 1986, the Sullivan Engineering Center opened, providing the School with new labs and classrooms.
His generosity to the School of Engineering encompasses 40 years of philanthropy. In 1999, Dr. Haughton and his wife, Beverly, established the Kenneth and Beverly Haughton Endowed Scholarship “to assist deserving undergraduate students majoring in engineering.” Many engineering students have benefitted from this gift over the past two decades.
Before joining Santa Clara University, he worked at IBM for twenty years, on programs that include the development of IBM’s early perpendicular disk drive program, the initial development of flying heads for disk drives, and a photo digital system for storing data. He became manager of the 'low cost file' program, resulting in technology advances used in all disk drive programs which followed. His contributions to the field of storage have been far-reaching.
Following his tenure as Dean of the School of Engineering, he went on to become Vice President of Engineering at DaVinci Graphics, retiring – for the third time – in 1992.
For all that he has done, thank you, and Congratulations, Dr. Haughton!