Georgia Tech Honors TUFF Founder Tom Hall

Georgia Tech Honors TUFF Founder Tom Hall

TUFF joined Georgia Tech President Angel Cabrera and University System Chancellor Sonny Perdue today in celebrating the dedication of the Val and Bud Peterson Residence Halls and a special recognition within the new facility honoring TUFF founder and longtime Board Chair Thomas H. Hall, III, IE '58.

The Thomas H. Hall, III Multipurpose Room recognizes a relationship between Tom, Georgia Tech and TUFF that stretches back more than four decades. A 1958 graduate of Georgia Tech's School of Industrial Engineering, Tom began his career at the Institute and established Georgia Tech's Development Office. In 1982, Georgia Tech President Joseph Pettit turned to Tom and fellow Georgia Tech alumni Frank Smith and Richard Whitehead with a challenge: find a new way to provide the facilities Georgia Tech needed to expand its research enterprise when traditional sources of capital were unavailable.

Their solution was the creation of TUFF. Its first project, the J. Frank Smith Centennial Research Building on 10th Street, established a new model for providing university research facilities and began a partnership between TUFF and Georgia Tech that has continued for more than 40 years. Since then, Tom and TUFF have played a role in the development and financing of nearly $500 million of research and innovation facilities serving Georgia Tech, including several of the buildings that helped establish Technology Square as one of the nation's leading university-anchored innovation districts.

The location of today's recognition makes it particularly meaningful. TUFF donated to Georgia Tech a portion of the land on which the Val and Bud Peterson Residence Halls now stand. The gift allowed property that TUFF had assembled in the early 1980s in support of Georgia Tech's

long-term mission to become part of the Institute's campus and serve generations of Georgia Tech students. Naming a space within that facility for Tom connects that gift to the person whose vision and commitment helped begin TUFF's partnership with Georgia Tech more than four decades ago.

"Tom's influence on TUFF and Georgia Tech is immeasurable," said Kevin Byrne, President and CEO of TUFF. "TUFF exists because Tom and two other loyal Georgia Tech alumni developed a creative solution when Georgia Tech needed one. What began with a single research building in 1982 grew into a partnership that has helped change the physical footprint of Georgia Tech and support the extraordinary growth of its research and innovation enterprise. To see Tom's name permanently placed in a building constructed on land TUFF gave to Georgia Tech is incredibly fitting."

More than four decades after helping create TUFF, Tom remains an active member and Chair of its Board of Directors and a trusted voice in the organization's work. The Thomas H. Hall, III Multipurpose Room is a fitting tribute to a loyal Yellow Jacket whose career has been defined by service to Georgia Tech-and whose vision continues to shape TUFF's work with institutions of education and research across the country.