On November 17, 2010, the Construction Engineering & Project Management faculty in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Kentucky held the inaugural Donn E. Hancher Lecture.  The lecture was established to honor Dr. Hancher who retired from UK in 2008 after 17 years of service.  Hancher had been the Terrell-McDowell Chair of Construction Engineering & Project Management, chair of the Department of Civil Engineering, and Associate Dean of the College of Engineering.   The lecture, to be given annually by an outstanding civil engineer selected by the Construction Engineering & Project Management faculty, recognizes Hancher’s contributions to civil engineering and construction engineering and project management.

Dennis C. Russell, General Manager of the Marine Division of Goettle Engineering and Construction in Cincinnati, presented the lecture on the company’s project that is part of the expansion of the Panama Canal.  Russell, a 1974 graduate in civil engineering from the University of Delaware, has more than 35 years experience in marine construction on the East coast, the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and Alaska.  Goettle is one of the nation’s largest geotechnical engineering and construction firms and is led by Douglas J. Keller, President and CEO, a 1984 UK civil engineering graduate, and Project Manager David G. Keller, a 1989 UK civil engineering graduate.