Bob Tillman Retires
Robert Tillman, who has served the Northeastern community for 39 years, is retiring in June 2015. Bob, an Associate Professor and long-time Co-op Coordinator in Civil and Environmental Engineering, received his BSCE, M.Ed., and Ed.D. degrees from Northeastern University . During his career at Northeastern, he has served as Acting Dean of the Department of Cooperative Education and as Co-op Director for the College of Engineering. He has conducted research, presented at professional conferences, and published in the areas of cooperative education, career development, professional ethics, and research design in education.
Bob has always been a world-class engineering educator. He cares deeply about the success of his students. His network of contacts in the profession is vast and he remembers details about each person’s career.
Danielle DiDomizio, BSCE’15 noted, “Whenever I have met someone in the work force that is a COE alum, they always ask about Bob and say how helpful he was. The stories are always the same: ‘Because of Tillman I have this job’ or ‘Professor Tillman helped me realize what I wanted to do with my future’. I am never surprised to hear a story about someone he has helped in the past and I am happy that I am one of the people that will tell those stories as well.”
Over the years, Tillman has helped nearly five-thousand students launch career trajectories, a truly remarkable and distinctive achievement in engineering education. He has been instrumental in the development of cooperative education in the civil engineering department, and in positioning the civil engineering program as one of the premier cooperative education-based programs in the country.
Dan Saulnier, a CEE alumnus and Associate Co-op Coordinator, is inheriting a well-oiled machine due to Tillman’s outstanding work. “Like many people in Boston’s civil engineering community, I met Bob when I was an undergraduate civil engineering student, and he helped to shape my understanding of the field, and of civil engineers’ role in society.”
On May 21st, Tillman was honored at a dinner of the Northeastern University Civil Engineering Alumni Organization (NUCEAO). Over 170 alumni, friends, and industry partners gathered to celebrate his accomplishments. The event attendance and heartfelt words, memories, and reflections shared were a great testimony to the outstanding legacy Bob has built.
Tillman’s dedication and commitment to the students has helped forge long-lasting relations with companies worldwide and has created countless opportunities for our students. Congratulations to Bob Tillman for his outstanding career as a faculty colleague and as an educator, mentor, and role model to so many grateful students.