From Professional Engineers of North Carolina

James A. Hackney, III, P.E., of Washington, has been named the recipient of the 2016 Distinguished Service Award by Professional Engineers of North Carolina. The award acknowledges exemplary service to the organization and to the engineering profession over many years and was presented at the P.E.N.C. annual conference in Asheville on June 27. Professional Engineers of N.C. is the North Carolina affiliate of the National Society of Professional Engineers, the major association of engineers licensed by state licensing boards after passage of state board examinations and progressive engineering employment.

Hackney is a graduate of N.C. State University, with degrees in both mechanical and industrial engineering. He was first licensed as a professional engineer in 1966 and joined P.E.N.C. in April of that year. He has served as president of the P.E.N.C. Eastern Carolina chapter, and he has served as treasurer, secretary and president of the state society. He was the first chairman of the P.E.N.C. Council of Fellows and has served on the Board of Directors of the P.E.N.C. Educational Foundation and the engineers’ political action committee, in addition to numerous committees and task forces over the years. He has also served as chairman of the advisory council of the College of Engineering of N.C. State University, as a member of the Board of Directors of the N.C. Engineering Foundation, and is currently vice-chairman of the advisory board of the School of Engineering at East Carolina University. He was named a fellow by the National Society of Professional Engineers in 1992, an honor afforded to less than 50 engineers nationally per year

Hackney was the president and C.E.O. of Hackney Industries, Inc. in Washington, an international manufacturer of transportation equipment, until his retirement in 1995. Since then, he has been president and C.E.O. of The Hackney Group, Inc., a management consulting and investment management firm. He has been active in a number of civic activities, including being a past-president of the Washington-Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce, past-chairman of the N.C.S.U. Board of Trustees and past-president of both the East Carolina Council and the Southeastern Region of the Boy Scouts of America. He is a lay minister and past vestryman of Zion Episcopal Church in Washington, where he lives with his wife of 55 years, Connie.