Ralph Carpenter, former Chairman of the Pipe Section, was inducted into the STI/SPFA Hall of Fame during the Awards dinner on Monday, April 11th during the STI/SPFA Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. Carpenter, along with his wife Pamela, were present at the event to be presented with a plaque and presentation from current Pipe Section Chairman Kyle Couture. His name will also be added to the Hall of Fame wall at the STI/SPFA headquarter office.
Ralph Carpenter served as the Chair of the Pipe Section from June 2009 until January 2016, and volunteered to create and serve as the Chair of a special STI/SPFA Marketing Committee from 2010 through 2015. As Chair of this committee, Ralph championed the pipe section and STI/SPFA as a whole to remain credible and recognized in the marketplace.
His thirty-one years of experience when he began working with STI/SPFA, including his involvement in and positions with the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), were invaluable to the association, strengthening the STI/SPFA reputation across many markets.
He spearheaded the Steel Facts Series initiative that created marketing flyers for all of the STI/SPFA segments, and are still in use today. Also, because of his very technical, yet practical knowledge and industry experience, he was able to bring together industry experts and launch a series of technical steel pipe webinars sponsored by STI/SPFA. He was instrumental in these webinars being successful, bringing in experts and using his ties to academia to get the webinars certified for Professional Development Hours for participants.
Carpenter’s career in the pipe industry began in 1978 and he joined AMERICAN in 1992, retiring in 2017. He served on the Executive Committee for the ASCE Pipeline Division and was chairman in 2012. He also co-chaired the 2008 Pipelines Conference and served on several other ASCE committees. In addition, he served as chairman of the Pipeline Division for the North American Society for Trenchless Technology.
