Towards the end of 2022, on the eve of the Tau Beta Pi induction ceremony, Carol Roberts (née Egizi) contacted the School of Engineering to make a special gift in memory and honor of her late husband and fellow alumnus, John P. Roberts, who established the Catholic University chapter of the engineering honor society sixty years ago.
President of the University’s independent engineering honor society Tau Beta, Mr. Roberts petitioned the Tau Beta Pi National Convention for acceptance as a new chapter in 1962, and on March 31st of that year, 45 members were inducted into the newly installed chapter. During that ceremony, Ms. Roberts and her classmate, Frances Murphy, were awarded the Tau Beta Pi Women’s Honor Badge, the first two women engineering students at Catholic University to receive such a distinction and a recognition that would be replaced with full membership status in 1969.
After receiving his Bachelors of Electrical Engineering and Masters of Nuclear Engineering from Catholic University, Mr. Roberts began his career in public service in 1965. He worked for the Atomic Energy Commission as well as the agency’s successors, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where he investigated the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, and the Department of Energy. Ms. Roberts’ work with federal agencies took her from the Transportation Safety Board, where she was an air safety investigator, to the National Science Foundation, where she traveled to Antarctica. The Roberts enjoyed traveling together, especially to every annual World Science Fiction Convention. They retained a connection with their Catholic University classmates in the area.
Dean John Judge will use the funds Carol has gifted to help recruit students who may become future Tau Beta Pi leaders.