Edward G. Engh
Associate Professor - School of Business
What he teaches:
Foundations of Business
Business Calculus
Intro to Business
Business Statistics 1
International Business
Business Statistics II
Number of years teaching at SLCC:
18
Undergraduate degree:
University
of Utah
Master’s:
University of Utah
Why working at SLCC matters:
I want to give something
back to this wonderful universe that gave me existence.
Greatest professional challenge:
Convincing others
that a wheelchair is not a disability. I have been in a wheelchair since I
was nine years old. At that time the traditional logic said: if you are
disabled you stay at home. Not me! Some said “Ed you have no
right to ask a girl to marry you.” My response to statements like that
would not be appropriate in this place. However, I will tell you that my
son “Greg” is a cosmologist, just like Carl Sagan who produced the original
“Cosmos” series. He writes Astronomy textbooks for a topnotch
publisher. My daughter “Emily” works for the Utah Department of Education,
and she has also given me two grandchildren, grandson Waylon who says he will
be a paleontologist, and granddaughter Willow who says she will be an astronomer. I
was the first disabled person to start and complete a graduate degree at the U.
of U. I was the first disabled industrial engineer to work in my
field. My employers in the aerospace Industry blinked at my wheelchair,
but they hired me, and issued me a hardhat. From then on, I was just part
of the team.
Greatest professional accomplishment:
The New
Horizons space probe, which recently flew past Pluto, bears a list of
names of engineers who contributed to the project. My name is on that
list. That space ship is now leaving the solar system, headed for the
stars, never to return. She will still be sailing into the deep void of
interstellar space, long after Earth ceases to exist. In a tiny way, the universe
will know that we were here, looking out and listening. Some of us were
also allowed to include the names of our family members. I was one of
them. Another space probe/lander bears my name, at the South Pole of
Mars. There is a mystery about this lander, she never radioed home.
Yet, images from other orbiting spacecraft clearly seem to show the Mars Polar
Lander sitting upright, gleaming in the sunlight, alone on a knoll, within
sight of the southern ice barrier of Mars. She sits with legs and antennae
extended, but silent. Someday we will visit that spaceship and discover
the mystery of why she never called home. Another great professional
accomplishment is becoming SLCC Faculty Senate President, which is my current
function at the college.
Advice for students or others:
Figure out how the
Universe works, and then chart your own course. You will very likely
discover that others mean well for you, but are dead wrong. There’s no
need to be angry at those who raised you, but there’s no requirement to bow to
other people’s fears. The more I learn the less I fear!
Future plans:
Write more books. I written several, but
most are highly specialized, and technical. My last published textbook was
called “Critical Thinking,” and it went through three editions with the
publisher Pearson. My next book will not be a textbook. Who knows, it
might be called “Nonsense!”
Family:
My family emigrated to North American from
Europe. The name Engh is Norwegian/Swedish. They pronounce it
“Ong.” It means a narrow place, like a valley between two
hills.
Skiing: I have two gold medals for slalom racing in the Utah Winter Games. I also enjoy astrophotography, camping, fossil hunting, writing, drawing and painting.
