Fire Safety Grad is “Last Man Standing”

A UNC Charlotte commencement tradition is to discover which of the graduates has been working the longest to earn their 49er degree. At the December 2017 commencement, as graduates sat group by group when the number of years were called out, the “Last Man Standing” was Fire Safety Engineering Technology student Ron Mauney, who first started his UNC Charlotte journey 42 years earlier in 1975.

A senior product design engineer at Kidde Residential and Commercial, Mauney, 61, says the long journey was worth it. He tells his story here and offers some advice to current students now starting the spring semester:

“I enrolled at UNCC in the fall of 1975. My major was to be Engineering Analysis and Design (EAD). The college of engineering was barely eight years old. Dean W. Colvard was chancellor of the university. Drafting was done with lead holders, T-squares, triangles and real paper. Slide rules were required for some classes. The university had a Burroughs 6500 mainframe computer and students used punch cards for their computer projects. FORTRAN was the engineering compiler language of choice.

“I was young, immature and I fell into just about every trap possible for a young adult who was on his own for the first time. I did reasonably well the first year or so, and then it was all downhill. After four years, I left UNCC on academic suspension with about three semesters worth of usable credits and proceeded on with my life.

“UNCC had prepared me well enough to get my foot in the door of Walter Kidde and Company as a mechanical drafter. Time passed and I gained experience that allowed me to take on increasingly more challenging jobs, until I was performing all the duties of a mechanical engineer. Ultimately I worked my way into the position of product design engineer.

“I supported a family and created a decent life for myself, but it all felt so tenuous. I had no credentials, so I worried that if something happened to my job, I might be forced to start that long climb again. More than that, there was always a nagging gremlin in the back of my mind that would not let me forget I failed myself and my parents back at UNCC.

“In 2001, I completed an associate’s degree in Industrial Management at Alamance Community College. An associate degree helped a good bit, but the gremlin was still there. After that, I started taking preliminary fire protection courses at local community colleges in preparation for admittance to the Fire Safety Engineering Technology program at UNCC.

“I had been working in the field of fire protection products ever since I left UNCC in 1979 and the BSET in Fire Protection Engineering Technology seemed like perfect complement to my career and the perfect way to finally kill the gremlin. In 2012, I applied and was readmitted to the Lee College of Engineering and UNCC.

“My experience at UNCC this time around was excellent. The distance education program strived to make the classes as close to being like on-campus as possible. The faculty was very supportive and dedicated to a quality education. Professor David Murphy was quick to point out at the beginning of each semester that the distance education program at UNCC was not one of those fly-by-night on-line degree programs; it was the real deal and required real work. He was right. Professors Kimble and Zhou were also fantastic in their knowledge and passion of the subjects.

“Working in teams with younger students was a great experience. Many of my classmates were young working adults in the fire service and were dedicated to work hard for themselves and the good of the team.

“My work duties have not changed, but I now have a newfound confidence knowing that my education has caught up with my career. More than that, I now have the peace of mind that comes from knowing my status as an engineer is no longer dependent on an unbroken chain of bosses and coworkers who know my abilities. It is a new freedom of sorts.

“My top 10 pieces of advice for current student is:

• Never give up on your dreams.
• Embrace each day as an opportunity to learn something new.
• Ask for help.
• The beginning of wisdom is when you realize you still have a lot to learn.
• Your path will have its share of detours, pitfalls and distractions – enjoy life but stay focused and wary.
• Knowledge is indeed power.
• There is always another way to your destination. If one is blocked, find another.
• Louis Pasteur had it right: People who seem lucky are just better prepared.
• Stubbornness can be a virtue.
• Engineering is the best damned job ever!