Annual Gala Fundraising Dinner
Each year, since 2006, the DFI Educational Trust hosts a Gala Fundraising Dinner. From 2010 until 2015, the event benefited the now fully endowed DFI Educational Trust Stanley Merjan City College of New York Civil Engineering Scholarship Fund. The scholarship is named for Stanley Merjan (1928-2019), senior consultant with Underpinning & Foundation Skanska and an inspiration and mentor to young engineers throughout the construction industry. Proceeds from past events also benefitted the Clyde N. Baker, Jr. Foundation Engineering Scholarship Fund, George J. Tamaro Manhattan University Civil Engineering Scholarship Fund, DFI Educational Trust General Fund and Women in Deep Foundations Fund.
Proceeds from the 2024 gala benefit the William F. Loftus Memorial Scholarship Fund, recently established in memory of Bill Loftus, a DFI founder and the only DFI president to serve twice. The fund will provide annual scholarships to undergraduate and graduate civil engineering students in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Manhattan University.
Past Gala Speakers
| 2017 | |
| Francis J. Lombardi, P.E., DIST. M. ASCE, F. SAME, (Retired) | Chief Engineer of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey |
| 2016 | |
| George J. Tamaro, P.E., Consultant | Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers |
| 2015 | |
| Michael McHugh, Executive Vice President | Moretrench |
| 2014 | |
| Dan Brown, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, President | Dan Brown and Associates |
| 2013 | |
| Theodore P. Zoli, III, P.E., Senior Vice President, National Bridge Chief Engineer | HTNB |
| 2012 | |
| Clyde N. Baker, Jr., P.E., S.E., Senior Principal Engineer | AECOM |
| 2011 | |
| Dr. Fred H. Kulhawy, P.E., G.E., Distinguished Member ASCE Professor Emeritus of Civil/Geotechnical Engineering | Cornell University Consulting Geotechnical Engineer, Ithaca, NY |
| 2010 | |
| Arthur D. Silber, Chief of NJ Transit’s ARC Tunnel Project and an Assistant Executive Director | NJ Transit |
| 2009 | |
| Richard T. Anderson, President | New York Building Congress |
| 2008 | |
| Christopher O. Ward, Executive Director | Port Authority of New York and New Jersey |
| 2007 | |
| James Michael Duncan, University Distinguished Professor, Emeritus and Associate Director of the Center for Geotechnical Practice and Research, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University |