Edward E. Toutant Graduate Fellowship Endowment Announced
August 1, 2019
The Department of Mechanical Engineering is pleased to announce the creation of the Edward E. Toutant Graduate Fellowship. This fellowship will be used to attract and support highly qualified applicants to the Ph.D. program in mechanical engineering, with the first awardee to be admitted in the fall semester, 2020.
The fellowship was created in memory of Ed Toutant through the generosity of his family, several of whom are Speed School graduates. Ed’s family includes Claire Toutant MD & Patricia Dailey MD, Bill Toutant, Anne & Kevin O’Connell, Amy & Ed Binford, and Roy (’77) & Susan (’77) Toutant, Lucie & Ronnie Mohr, and Sally & David Campbell (’78). Graduates of Speed School are noted.
Ed Toutant was born in Annapolis, MD. After a family move to Louisville, he graduated from Trinity High School and then enrolled in Speed School. He earned his B.S. and M.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering in 1973 and 1974, respectively. He also earned an M.B.A. from Xavier. He began his engineering career at IBM in Lexington before his work took him to Austin, TX, where he lived for 42 years.
Ed lived a full and energetic life; he ran with the bulls in Pamplona, was a skydiver, traveled extensively and was an avid promoter of the arts community in Austin, working with the Gaslight-Baker Theater, Zach, and the Hyde Park theater group. But his true passion was trivia competition. In 1989, he appeared as a contestant on Jeopardy, winning one match and earning $10,000. In 2001, he became a contestant on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, where he answered every question correctly to win $1.8M.
He continued to work at IBM until his retirement in 2003. Though he continued to live in Austin, he remained close to his family members most of whom remain in Louisville. Ed passed away on November 6, 2018 after a battle with brain cancer.
The ME Department wants to thank the members of the Toutant family for their thoughtfulness and generosity in developing this lasting memorial to Ed. It will have an important positive impact on our program and on the future recipients of this prestigious fellowship.