The Toledo Area Engineers Week Committee along with the Toledo Society of Professional Engineers is pleased to announce that Daniel V. Stark, P.E. has been named the 2017 Toledo Area Engineer of the Year in recognition of his commitment to the profession. This award is presented annually to a member of the engineering community in recognition of the accomplishments and achievements that he or she has made to the engineering profession and the community.
Dan, the third of six children, was born to Vernon and Anna Stark and raised in the small town of Edgerton, Ohio. His father was a carpenter and his mother a bookkeeper. Together they operated a small building and construction company. The family business included home building and remodeling, in-ground pool sales and construction, as well as commercial/industrial construction and renovation. Anna was also a part-time bookkeeper for a local car dealer and later a furniture store.
The company was truly a family business as all six children worked at some level in the business while growing up. Prior to junior high school, Dan started working summers for his father and continued until his graduation from college. His mother continually pushed the importance of college education and all six children received degrees from The University of Toledo, including three in engineering. Dan graduated with his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering degree in 1980. In 1985, he became registered as a Professional Engineer in the State of Ohio.
Upon graduation, Dan accepted a field engineering position with Fluor Daniel International in its nuclear power construction division. He worked on the Enrico Fermi II Station near Monroe, MI, and the Shearon Harris Station near Raleigh, NC. To further develop his design skills, Dan took a structural engineering position with AVCA Corporation in Toledo in 1985. He moved into project management running projects in the food, chemical and glass processing industries. Dan advanced to team leader managing the operation of two business units until 2002. He was a senior project manager at SSOE and then jumped back into construction managing mechanical and piping projects at Dunbar Mechanical.
Ten years ago, Dan accepted a project manager position at GEM Inc. in its Piping Department. He has been GEM’s account manager for Ball Metal Containers in Findlay, and assisted in developing GEM’s innovative GPS (GEM Process Solutions) team which focuses on design/build for process project construction. Currently, he is a senior preconstruction and operations leader on the GPS team. Dan has been project manager for several significant GPS projects including: KOST USA’s glycol-based blending operations in Cincinnati, the Syracuse University Green Data Center, several oxide and pasting process expansions for Johnson Controls in Toledo and one currently in St. Joseph, Missouri. Dan also served as the mechanical/plumbing project manager for the Hollywood Casino Toledo. In 2010, Dan was offered and became a shareholder of The Rudolph Libbe Group.
At his first Toledo Society of Professional Engineers (TSPE) meeting, he offered to assist with the MATHCOUNTS program and ended up becoming the coordinator. Twenty-six years later, he continues his long run as the Toledo Chapter MATHCOUNTS Coordinator and assisted with the state MATHCOUNTS competition. Dan has been an active trustee on the TSPE Board of Directors nearly every year since 1991, and was named the TSPE Young Engineer of the Year in 1992. From 2002 to 2004, Dan served as secretary for the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) and has been on the Engineers Week Committee for the past 26 years. Additionally, Dan was an Advisory Board Member for Sylvania Schools’ Partner in Education from 2001 until 2006.
He is a lifelong runner, dedicated to health and fitness and enjoys snow skiing and most recently CrossFit training. He has run three marathons, including the Boston Marathon, and has completed three sprint triathlons in recent years. For the past year, he has been a dedicated member of Black Swamp CrossFit in Sylvania.
Dan resides in Sylvania Township and is a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Sylvania. His daughter Jessica is studying broadcast journalism at Ohio University and is enjoying working for the Columbus Blue Jackets as part of their Ice Crew promotional team. His stepson Jason Dipman is an anesthesiologist assistant at St. Louis University Hospital and resides in Belleville, Illinois, with his wife Alycia, their son and infant daughter.
Mr. Stark received his award at the Annual Engineer of the Year Luncheon held on Monday, February 20, 2017 at Parkway Place in Maumee.