NEWS

Lifetime achievement awards generally are given to persons retired or about to be. The announcement that the Society of Naval Architects & Marine Engineers (SNAME) had awarded Donald L. Blount, 80, with the 2015 David W. Taylor medal for “Notable Achieve­ment in Naval Architecture and/or Marine Engineering” dovetailed nicely with the Decem­ber 1 news that the naval architecture firm of Gibbs & Cox had acquired Donald L. Blount & Associates (DLBA).

Seven George Washington University graduates, including the director of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the chief of staff of the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, were honored Thursday night by the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the 2015 GW Engineering Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

The Outstanding Alumni and Friends Pioneer Award was presented to Donald Blount, founder of Donald L. Blount and Associates, Inc. A naval engineer, Blount was employed as a civilian by the U.S. Navy for 35 years before launching his company in 1988, which provides marine design, engineering and consulting services for high-speed, special-purpose commercial, military and recreational watercraft for U.S. and international clients.