Roy Whitt e-mail: rwhitt@outlook.com
86569 N Hampton Club Way Cell: 540-597-7674
Fernandina Beach, FL 32034
Chemical Engineering USMC / Ashland Inc. / Marathon Petroleum / Meridium, Inc. / LAER Consulting LLC
Aug 8, 2018: I was browsing today looking for another classmate and ran across the reunion information and classmates page. I’ve been woefully remiss in updating my information in the alumni site – it’s probably been 20 years or more! I married my high school sweetheart and love of my life, Kathy, sophomore year then spent my “spare time” working in Dr. Reeves’ chemistry lab. Mike Tackett and I came to RPI from the same high school in Ashland, KY, but we’ve seen very little of each other since. After graduation, I spent a tour in the Marine Corps then enjoyed a great, 30-year career in oil refining with Ashland and Marathon. After retirement from Marathon in January 2007, I joined a software company in Roanoke, VA providing asset performance management for large enterprises around the world. We grew the business five-fold and sold to GE Digital in the fall of 2016 – so, I retired again (and, hung out my consulting shingle.) I’ve had the opportunity to visit, speak and teach in a lot of places around the world: the UK, France, Italy, Hungary, Austria, Romania, UAE (Dubai and Abu Dhabi), Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, India, Russia and Israel. Kathy and I have two wonderful children, a boy and a girl, who have given us seven even more wonderful grandchildren ( 2 bookend boys and 5 girls). We’ve been blessed with a fairytale life. I find myself doing a small amount of industrial consulting, a lot of church work here and abroad helping leaders and their staff, and am in my 20th year of serving on RPI’s Dean’s advisory council for the school of engineering. Working with my home church, First Roanoke, Emanuel University in Oradea, Romania and its alumni, Kathy and I hope to be a positive influence for the spread of Christianity around the world. I love to fish for bass and trout as often as I can when we’re in Virginia. Surf fishing at the Atlantic beaches near Jacksonville is not as appealing but it beats doing yard work. Now that I’m mostly retired, I can’t imagine how I ever had time to work a full time job – I guess it’s all about prioritization.
I’d love to hear from any of my early roommates, Mike, Mark Crandell or Hans Schick. I stopped by to visit Dr. Reeves many years ago on one of visits to Troy for an advisory council meeting but haven’t kept up with him since. Life passes by too quickly;)
Kathy and Roy – 48 years!!
Dec 2017
Back Row: Catherine, Rylee, Chuck, Tara, Stephen, Amber, Shane
Front Row: Caroline, Maisyn, Kathy, Roy, Maxton, Carinna
March 2017 – Golan Heights