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Don
Colin Kelly
Don Colin Kelly received
a Civil Engineering Career Achievement Award.
Don Colin Kelly was born in
Clarksville, Ark. on September 10, 1942 to James Hugh and Emily Turner
Kelly. The family settled in Madisonville, Ky. when Don was five years
old, and he graduated from Madisonville High School in 1960. He entered
the University of Kentucky as a business and pre-law major, but realized
after one semester that was not his calling and switched to engineering.
He received a B.S.C.E. in 1965 and an M.S.C.E. in 1967.
In September of 1967, Don joined the Kentucky Department of Highways
as a Highway Planning Engineer and over the next 10 years rose through
the ranks to serve as the State Transportation Planning Engineer. He
left for Murray State University in 1980 as Director of the Institute
for Rural Development and Associate
Professor of Engineering Technology. He also served stints as Vice President
for University Relations and Development, Executive Director of the
MSU Foundation, and one year as the MSU Budget Director.
In 1986, he was asked to return to Frankfort by Governor Martha Layne
Collins to be the Deputy Secretary of Commerce, where he was responsible
for recruiting technical companies to Kentucky, and overseeing the establishment
of the Governor's Council for Science & Technology. Dr. Lee Todd
served as the first chair of that group.
In 1988, Don left Kentucky
to work with Dr. Charlie Schimpeler in Los Angeles as Deputy Director
on the Metro Rail Transportation Project. His role was to direct transportation
engineering support of design, oversee the Benefit Assessment Analysis
Program, and provide day to day oversight of the technical support staff.
He returned to Kentucky in 1991 to join Calvin Grayson at the UK Transportation
Center to manage the Advantage I-75 project. After only 10 months, Don
was asked by Governor Brereton Jones to serve as Secretary of the Kentucky
Transportation Cabinet. He served for four years as head of the 6,000-employee
agency, and instituted its first strategic plan. He also served on the
Policy Committee of the Transportation Research Board of the National
Academy of Sciences.
From 1996 through 2004, Don was a part of the national engineering consulting
practice of Jordan, Jones &
Goulding as Vice President in their Lexington office. His principal
assignments were in the area of transportation systems development,
and financing methodology for major transportation programs and projects
in the southeastern U.S.
Don planned to retire from the practice of engineering in 2004 when
Tates Creek Presbyterian Church voted to build a new sanctuary and asked
him to manage the project from planning through design and construction.
The first service was held in the $4.1 million sanctuary in August 2006.
Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry then asked Don to serve as Commissioner
of Public Works & Development, a position he has held for the past
16 months.
Don is a member of the American Public Works Association and was selected
as one of the Top Ten Public Works Administrators in North America in
1995. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, a
member of the National and Kentucky Society of Professional Engineers,
a licensed professional engineer in Kentucky, and a member of both ODK
and XE honorary societies.
He currently serves as the
Chairman of both the Perryville Battlefield Preservation Association
and the Perryville Battlefield Commission. During his service on these
groups, the size of the battlefield that has been preserved for future
generations has grown from 98 to 669 acres.
Don and Janice, his high school sweetheart, have been married for 47
years. They enjoy traveling and gardening. They have three children:
Laura and Ken Liang, LaCanada-Flintridge, Cal., Craig and Jennifer Kelly,
Lexington, Ky., and Drs. Sean and Huong Kelly, Murray, Ky. They have
nine grandchildren who enjoy spending time with Papa.
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