Distinguished Members
A Distinguished Member is recognized for outstanding contributions to the NCUTCD over an extended period. Some members have made significant contributions to the NCUTCD over many years but have not served in a leadership role that allows them to be considered for Honorary Member status. The Distinguished Member category provides a means for recognizing these individuals.
To be considered for Distinguished Member, an individual must meet either of the criteria listed
below:
- Served for at least 20 years as a Member, Associate Member, or Technical Member
with some portion of that time in a leadership position. Service in a leadership role
includes: Council Member or Associate Member, technical committee chair, vice-chair,
or secretary, or Executive Board member. - Served for at least 30 years as a Member, Associate Member, or Technical Member
with no leadership experience.
The following individuals currently are designated as Distinguished Members (click on their names to learn more):
Active Members
Richard Nassi (June 2024)
Richard Nassi has been a Technical Member of NCUTCD continuously since joining in 1981. During that entire time, he was a member of the Signals Technical Committee (STC). His longtime traffic engineering employment with the City of Tucson and later with the Pima Association of Governments has enabled him to provide valuable first-hand insights into many of the issues that have been decided by NCUTCD.
Richard served on many NCHRP project panels involving signals research, through which he has developed numerous close relationships with key researchers, enabling him to easily arrange for them to present and discuss their signals research project results and recommendations at NCUTCD meetings. For many years, Richard has been instrumental in developing important NCUTCD recommendations to add the Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon or commonly called the HAWK, RRFB, ramp metering signals, and various other devices to the MUTCD. One of the many issues he shepherded through NCUTCD is the Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon (PHB) or HAWK, now widely used around the U.S. as an MUTCD-included device to improve pedestrian safety.
Public Safety has been a key element in his work. His work has been recognized by the following Institute of Transportation Engineers awards: Individual Achievement Award, Edmund R. Ricker Traffic Safety Individual Award, Pedestrian Award for Safety, and Outstanding Paper Award. Further, he has received recognition by the Federal Highway Administration for the following: Excellence, Children’s Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Program, and Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Regional Public-Private Partnership Regional Traffic Control Center. He also received a fellowship to study at the Bureau of Highway Traffic.
Emeritus Members
Bob Garrett (January 2020) – Emeritus (September 2024), Deceased
After serving in the Marine Corps during the Korean War, Bob earned his CE degree. During his career, Bob worked for a county, contractor, and then started working for associations. Bob was the Chief Engineer with the Calcium Chloride Institute, then a Division Engineer with ARBA (later ARTBA). In 1980, he became the Executive Director of ATSSA. After retiring from ATSSA in 1998, Bob became the NCUTCD Executive Secretary and served in that capacity until 2020.
Although his long professional career had been fantastic, Bob said that the most outstanding part of his life had been his family. Bob and his wife Donna were married for 66 years and were blessed with five children, 15 grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.
“What more could you ask of this life?” Bob asked.
Bob passed away this September 26, 2024, at the age of 88.