Akron, Ohio, April 11, 2007 - The University of Akron College of Engineering will honor four outstanding alumni on Thursday, April 19 at the college's 2007 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Awards breakfast. The event will be held at 7:30 a.m. at the Martin University Center.

The 2007 honorees include Lynn M. Cavalier ('81) of Richfield, senior vice president of human resources, FirstEnergy; David J. Celik ('76, '82) of West Akron, city engineer, City of Akron Engineering Bureau; Gary E. Starr ('76) of Doylestown, president, Starr & Sons Ltd.; and David P. Tschantz, P.E. ('75) of West Akron, Peters, Tschantz & Bandwen Inc.

In addition, an honorary award will be presented to Chun-Fu "C.F." Chen of Bath, president of Savile Lane and president of Azova. The College of Engineering Alumni Board and the College of Engineering are recognizing these individuals for their achievements in engineering, professional development and community service.

Lynn Cavalier received a bachelor of science degree in engineering from The University of Akron and a bachelor of science degree in medical technology from Northwestern University.

She began her career with Ohio Edison - which merged with Centerior Energy in 1997 to form FirstEnergy - in 1981 as an associate engineer at the company's Gorge Plant in Akron. She held numerous engineering positions prior to being promoted to operations supervisor at the W.H. Sammis Plant in l988. In 1990, she became superintendent of the plant's Units 1-4.

After other assignments, she was promoted to president of FirstEnergy's Eastern Region-Ohio in 1997; vice president of human resources in 2001; and senior vice president in 2005.

Cavalier is a member of the board of trustees of Archbishop Hoban High School and a member of the Conference Board's Advisory Council on Human Resources Management and the Organization Resources Counselors Senior Human Resources Officer Network.

A native of Lorain, Ohio, David Celik received his bachelor's degree in civil engineering and master's degree in business administration from The University of Akron. During his 30-year career with the City of Akron, he has worked on significant projects that have affected the quality of life for the community. Included in these projects are the Y-bridge, Akron Innerbelt, East Expressway major upgrading, J.S. Knight Convention Center, Ohio Canal Towpath and Bikeway, and the Mud Run Golf Course and Clubhouse. He also was responsible for the design and construction of Canal Park baseball stadium, home of the Akron Aeros.

Celik is chairman of The University of Akron Engineering Alumni Association and a member of UA's Civil Engineering Department Advisory Board and the Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study Policy Committee. A certified baseball umpire by the Ohio High School Athletic Association, he has coached summer baseball for many years.

Gary Starr began his career as a sales and application engineer at York Air Conditioning in York, Pa., after receiving a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from The University of Akron. He joined the South Carolina architectural engineering firm of Cummings and McCrady in 1978, and returned to Ohio in 1980 to join the consulting engineering firm of Scheeser & Buckley. He became partner in 1983; executive vice president in 1987 - the year the firm became Scheeser Buckley Mayfield Inc. - and president and chairman of the board in 1998. After retiring in 2002, he founded Starr & Sons Ltd., a mechanical engineering consulting practice.

Starr has designed heating, air conditioning, plumbing and other mechanical systems for such notable facilities as the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Akron General Medical Center, The Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals of Cleveland, Kent State University, Cleveland State University and Marshall University, as well as several buildings on The University of Akron campus.

After graduating from The University of Akron in 1975, David Tschantz joined the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. In 1981, he joined the electrical engineering consulting firm of Kucheman & Varvaro in Bath. The firm's name was changed to Peters, Tschantz & Bandwen in 1997.

The firm established the UA Kucheman and Varvaro Scholarship in Electrical Engineering to honor retired founding partners Kent M. Kucheman and Joe Varvaro. The scholarship provides annual, renewable tuition assistance to qualified undergraduates in electrical engineering.

Tschantz is licensed in many states and is a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the International Association of Electrical Inspectors. He and his business partner and former UA classmate James Peters serve on the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Advisory Council, which they formed in 2001.

Chun-Fu Chen is the 2007 recipient of the college's Honorary Alumni Award. A 1960 graduate of the National Taiwan University Department of Electrical Engineering, he immigrated to the United States in 1963 to pursue a master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee and a doctoral degree from Vanderbilt University. He taught for one year at Southern University before joining the faculty at The University of Akron in 1968, where he retired in 1994.

While teaching at UA, Chen obtained permission from former College of Engineering Dean Dr. Louis Hill to set up Quatech Inc., a company specializing in designing data acquisition and data communication for the personal computer. The company grew and was sold to a venture capital firm in 2000. Chen went on to form two new companies, Quatronix and Azova. As president of Quatronix, Chen led the company in computer-based data acquisition, measurement instrumentation and data communication until 2002. Currently, Chen holds the position of president of Azova, a provider of temperature and humidity monitor and control devices. Recently, he launched Savile Lane, a retail operation that specializes in affordable handmade clothes for men.

Chen and his wife, May Juan, support the Dr. C.F. Chen Student Award for Design Excellence for UA electrical and computer engineering students. In addition, in 1988, Chen and his colleague C.S. Chen funded the Louis A. Hill Jr. Award to encourage faculty research efforts.