Friday 11 July 2008 morning ceremony
Sarah Buck
Ruth Hawker
 Mrs Sarah Buck (DEng)
Sarah was the first pupil to
study engineering from
Stafford Girls High School.
She achieved First Class
Honours from the
University of Exeter in
1971, which was followed
by a year of post graduate
research in medical
engineering in 1974. She
became a Chartered Civil
Engineer (Member) in 1980
and a Chartered Structural
Engineer in 1982 (Member,
and Fellow in 1997).
She started her own business in 1993, and then co-founded
BSW Consulting in 1996 based in Exeter, where she is currently
a director, expanding the business over the past 12 years. She
has been involved in the design and supervision of a wide range
of civil and structural projects over her 30 year career, developing
an interest in historic structures and sustainable construction.
Sarah’s recent projects have included the new Children’s
Hospice near Bristol and a major study and remedial works at
Mullion Harbour in Cornwall. Other projects have included
schools, flats, offices, leisure centres, hotels, banks, airports,
drainage schemes and landfill sites. Whilst most of her work has
been based around the UK’s South West, there have also been
several overseas projects including Mmabatho Airport in South
Africa, a new 15km long sewerage scheme for Negril in Jamaica,
and roads in Southern Africa.
Sarah was elected as the first woman Council member of the
Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) in 1983. She was
awarded IStructE’s Lewis Kent Award in 2001, which is awarded
for personal services by a member to the Institution or the
profession, and was winner of the Atkins Inspire Awards - Civil
Engineering Outstanding Achiever 2007 Award. She was
appointed President of IStructE on Thursday 4 October 2007
and is the first woman to be elected to this position.
Sarah is also involved in the wider construction industry. She is a
member of South West Women in Construction, who actively
promote construction as a career for girls, and is a past member
of the civil engineering advisory board of Exeter College, Exeter.
Listen to Sarah Buck’s speech here.
 Ruth Hawker (LLD)
Ruth Hawker OBE was
born and educated in
Guernsey. She started her
career in the NHS in
1956 and is still involved
as a non-executive
director of her local
mental health trust. She
qualified as an
orthopaedic and general
nurse at the Princess
Elizabeth Orthopaedic
and Royal Devon and
Exeter hospitals, where
she continued to work as
a staff nurse.
She completed a degree in Education at St Luke’s College,
Exeter which enabled her to register as a qualified nurse
teacher. In 1981, she gained her PhD from the University of
Exeter and continued to maintain her links with the University
by integrating modules of sociology and psychology into the
trainee nursing curriculum – a radical innovation at that time.
Ruth became Director of Nurse Education at Plymouth
School of Nursing in 1987 and was also invited to join a
number of national committees which were focused on the
implementation of major reforms in nursing and midwifery
education.
In 1992 she became Chief Executive of Tor and South West
College where she led the reforms by bringing together the
separate schools and colleges of nursing into one organisation
serving Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.
On her retirement in 1996, Ruth became Chair of the Royal
Devon and Exeter Hospital Trust and Emeritus Professor of
the University of Plymouth. She joined the University of
Exeter Council in 1997, becoming Pro-Chancellor in 2001
and retiring in 2007 after contributing to a decade of growth
and change for the University.
She was awarded the OBE for services to nurse education in
1994.
See Ruth Hawker collect her Honorary Degree here.
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