Rector & Member Archives

William E. Wine

1948-52

William E. Wine (Class of 1904), served on the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors from 1943 to 1954 and was rector from 1948 to 1952. He also served as president and member of the board of directors of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association.

Wine was born in Bridgewater, Va. He entered Virginia Polytechnic Institute as a sophomore rat in September 1901. He was graduated in June 1904, with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. He was an assistant in the Virginia Tech Department of Graphics in 1904 and 1905 and received the degree of mechanical engineer in June 1905. He worked for the Atlantic Coast Line Railway as a draftsman then resident engineer before ending up as chief mechanical draftsman. During his time with the railroad, from 1906 to 1913, he designed and patented a number of parts for railroad cars and locomotives.

The Wine Railway Appliance Co. was established in Toledo, Ohio, in July 1912 to manufacture some of the parts Wine had designed. Wine was elected president of the company in September 1913 and left the railroad to take that post, where he continued to design and patent additional parts. The Industrial Steel Casting Co. was organized with Wine's assistance in 1919 in Toledo to manufacture castings, sheet steel, steel wire, wire rope, pig iron, and structural steel products. He served as chairman of the board of directors and of the Executive Committee of this company.

Wine devoted much of his time to his businesses, but he did make time to be active in the alumni association and his game farm in Virginia, where, with the co-operation of the state game department he raised the only pure breed of wild turkeys in captivity.

Wine also was a trustee at Bridgewater College from 1951 to 1955. The William E. and Margaret K. Wine Endowed Scholarship Fund was set up there in 1982.

The William E. Wine Award was established in his memory at Virginia Tech by the Alumni Fund Council in 1956. These awards, first presented in 1957, went to the most outstanding teacher in each school until 1962. Beginning that year, the award went to three faculty members elected at large from a selection nominated by students, faculty, and alumni.

He died in 1956. His wife, Margaret, died in 1983.