Flowers to be inducted into Distinguished Alumni Academy

Civil engineering alum Michael Flowers is slated to be inducted into WVU's Distinguished Alumni Academy.

Michael Flowers, a civil engineering graduate, is one of five alumni selected for induction into WVU's Distinguished Alumni Academy.

With more than 40 years’ experience in civil engineering, Flowers has served as an industry leader in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. As a graduate in the civil engineering program at the WVU Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, his dedication to the field has remained strong.

As the former president and chief executive officer of American Bridge Company headquartered in Pittsburgh, he began his career in 1975 while conducting repairs and maintenance on the steel making facilities for American Bridge’s parent company, United States Steel Corporation. Working from the ground up, he was later assigned to a business unit responsible for major commercial construction projects in the United States including high-rise buildings and bridges.

Flowers’ résumé of projects stems from the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan, to One Mellon Bank Center, PPG Place and the Fifth Avenue Place in Pittsburgh, among others. In 1986, Flowers joined the Mellon Stuart Company in their commercial building division as vice president, working on the major bridge and heavy and highway projects centered primarily in Pennsylvania and Illinois. In 1994, he returned to American Bridge as senior vice president of operations. His projects moved internationally as he oversaw major bridge construction in Portugal, and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Flowers assumed the role of chief executive officer of American Bridge in 2011. Since that time, he has served on multiple committees and organizations including the American Society of Engineers, West Virginia University Department of Civil Engineers Advisory Committee and the University of Pittsburgh Department of Civil Engineers Advisory Committee, where he obtained his master’s degree in 1978.

In 2014, Flowers received the Roebling Award for outstanding leadership in the construction of one of the most challenging bridge projects ever attempted by civil engineers, the single-tower, asymmetrical self-anchored suspension bridge across San Francisco-Oakland Bay. At 2,047 feet, the bridge is the longest self-anchored suspension bridge in the world. The bridge officially opened for public use in 2013.

Also scheduled for induction on May 18 are J. Keith Bowers,Albert Lewis, Oliver Luck and Alan Zuccari.

For more information about the Academy of Distinguished Alumni, contact the WVU Alumni Association at 304.293.0991 or visithttp://alumni.wvu.edu.

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