 |
|||||
|
TRW scientist wins 'Black Engineer of the Year' Award
by George Wiley
"TRW wants to hire the best, but so do other companies," says TRW engineer Arnold Galloway. "One of the things that makes us stand out and may make us attractive is the nature of our diversity program."
Galloway has been wearing two hats at TRW for more than 20 years.
His main job has been that of the defense engineer. Over the years Galloway has worked in the Redondo Beach headquarters of the aerospace corporation on a number of missile defense systems of which, he says, he is enormously proud. This work has included engineering on Minuteman, Polaris, Peacekeeper and Trident missiles. More recently, Galloway has been burning the midnight oil writing proposals on the company's National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System program. He's also hard at work on a Space Based Infrared System to "track missiles that might be aimed at the U.S.," as Galloway puts it.
All the time he has been working with others at TRW developing projects and programs to protect his country, Galloway has also been working to protect his heritage. Galloway has been highly active in TRW's African American Task Group, an employee networking and mentoring project that has allowed Galloway , now 60, to serve as a role model for young African American scientists at TRW and elsewhere.
Galloway's activities have brought him recognition within TRW, which has about 8,500 employees in the South Bay. Earlier this month Galloway was feted in Washington, D.C. as the national winner of the Black Engineer of the Year for professional achievement in the industrial category.
The award is given in competition with hundreds of black engineers from around the country. 'I felt very honored to be in the competition, let alone to win the award," Galloway says. "I think it says something about my career and TRW in general."
Married and the father of two adult children, Galloway received his bachelor's, master's and PhD degrees from the University of Michigan. Galloway says he's been on the cutting edge in helping open doors for other blacks his whole career. He credits much of his ability to do this to a positive attitude.
As the first member of his family to earn a college degree of any kind, Galloway didn't come by success without his own mentors, and he's been trying to pass along the favor.
Galloway put himself through college. He knows what that struggle is like for youngsters doing it now. Through his early college days, Galloway worked as a busboy, a janitor, a lab assistant or a lecturer to keep himself in school.
When he mentors, Galloway says, he tries to tell younger African-Americans what it takes to be successful. Put in the long hours, work harder than anybody else. Now, he says, having won the Black Engineer of the Year Award will give him "more credibility" for the advice he dispenses.
But Galloway doesn't just credit his own initiative for his winning the award. He gives credit also to the corporate culture at TRW, which has networking and support programs not only for its black employees but for many minority groups.
"The diversity programs are not involved in the hiring," Galloway says. "The diversity program seeks to recognize that contribution that any one ethnic group brings to the combined talents and the goals of the company. We have the population, how can we welcome them into the corporate community?"ER