Virginia Tech Engineering honors Carson for his career achievements

Dan Carson (center), a retired Appalachian Power Company executive, is inducted into the Virginia Tech Academy of Engineering Excellence by Richard Benson, dean of the Virginia Tech college of engineering. Looking on at right is Sam Easterling, department head of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech.

Dan Carson, a retired Appalachian Power Company executive, who earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Virginia Tech in 1970, is a 2014 inductee into Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering Academy of Engineering Excellence. He joins an elite group of 126 individuals out of more than 60,000 living Virginia Tech engineering alumni.

The Academy of Engineering Excellence was founded in 1999 to acknowledge engineering graduates who have made continuous and admirable engineering or leadership contributions during their careers.

During college summers, Carson worked at Appalachian Power as a member of one of its survey crews. After graduation, he joined Appalachian’s Roanoke, Va., office as an engineer, starting as one of the designers of AEP’s groundbreaking 765,000-volt transmission system.

In 1977, the Pulaski, Va., native earned his master of business administration degree from Lynchburg College. The following year, he became an assistant to the president of Appalachian Power in Roanoke. In 1984, Carson was named manager of Appalachian’s Abingdon District, and in 1992, he became vice president with responsibility for the company’s rates and contracts, accounting and government affairs functions. He served as state president-AEP Virginia/Tennessee from 1996 until 2004. At that time, Appalachian Power was re-formed as a multi-state utility, and Carson was named vice president-external affairs for Virginia/Tennessee. Carson retired from the company in 2010.

During his career, Carson served in various professional organizations, including: a member of Virginia Governor Tim Kaine’s Commission on Climate Change; the Virginia Manufacturers Association; the Virginia College Fund; the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges; the Virginia Foundation for Research and Economic Education (Virginia FREE); the United Way of Roanoke Valley; and the board of directors of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce.

He is a member of the Virginia Tech College of Engineering’s Committee of 100, and in 2007 was inducted as a member of the Academy of Distinguished Alumni of the Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech.

Carson and his wife, Sandy, have eight grandchildren. In his retirement, he said he’s been “focused on the grandchildren.”