Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering
is pleased to announce
a gift from the Beall Family Foundation establishing
the Don Beall Dean of Engineering.
Dr. Belle W. Y. Wei is the first recipient of the Beall endowed deanship.
The gift provides the dean with funding to advance the college’s vision
to educate new engineers for the new century.
The news release is available at http://www.sjsu.edu/news/news_detail.jsp?id=2582
ABC KGO 7 News: SJ State Engineering School Gets $4M Gift
Sigma Alpha Epsilon's website: San Jose Alum Pledges Funds
Mr. Beall's Profile:
Donald R. Beall retired from Rockwell in 1998 after a 30-year career. He served as President of the company for 10 years and then served as Chairman/CEO for the next 10 years. Under his leadership, Rockwell became a global leader in aerospace, electronics, and automotive markets. Through a series of strategic actions, the company became focused on a diversified group of leadership electronics businesses serving factory automation, communications, avionics, and various communications semiconductor world markets. Those electronics businesses today are represented by six public companies through which significant shareowner value has been created.
Mr. Beall serves as a director on the boards of Rockwell Collins, Conexant Systems, Mindspeed Technologies, and CT Realty. He is a former director of Jazz Semiconductors, Skyworks Solutions, Proctor and Gamble, Amoco, Rockwell, and Times Mirror. Currently, he is a partner in Dartbrook Partners (a family partnership) and the Chairman of the Beall Family Foundation. His wife, Joan, and their two sons, Jeffrey and Kenneth, are active in the management of both Dartbrook Partners and the Beall Family Foundation. He is an overseer of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and has received many honors including the Horatio Alger award.
An alumnus of San José State University, Mr. Beall earned his B.S. degree in Metallurgical Engineering in 1960 and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh in 1961. He is involved in numerous professional, educational, public service and philanthropic endeavors.
Mr. Beall believes very strongly in the value of engineering and science education, which are crucial to the innovation and entrepreneurial process that leads to a stronger America. His generous gift will help in implementing the college’s vision to educate new engineers, who possess the technical capabilities and ethical orientation to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
Dean Wei's Profile:
Dr. Belle Wei was appointed dean of the Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering at SJSU in 2002. With nearly 5,000 students, the college is the largest provider of engineers to Silicon Valley companies and has consistently received top ranking among the nation’s engineering schools offering undergraduate and master’s-level programs.
Wei has led the college in developing its vision to educate new engineers, who are technically excellent, broadly educated, and socially responsible, for the new century. The college is advancing this vision through initiatives in student success, faculty excellence, and cutting-edge multidisciplinary programs, such as biomedical device engineering, green engineering, global experiential learning, and business education for engineers. During her tenure, the college has doubled its research grants and its Silicon Valley corporate master’s degree programs. In 2007, the college received record-breaking gifts of nearly $19 million dollars.
Having earned numerous awards, Wei was recently honored with the 2007 EE Times Educator of the Year Award and the 2007 Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien Educational Leadership Award. She also received a U.S. Congressional Commendation in 2003. Wei holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from UC-Berkeley and a master’s degree from Harvard University with specialty in VLSI special architectures.
– Donald R. Beall
