Tad Douce 
Distinguished Service Award

“Tad Douce has been instrumental in the continuous development of the Tri-Rivers Engineering programs and our fantastic RAMTEC facility,” said Ritch Ramey, RAMTEC Coordinator. “Since the mid-1990’s he has participated in and helped develop the River Valley Middle School as a leader in technical education in Ohio. Many other middle school engineering programs throughout Ohio look to RVMS Technical Education as the model by which they strive to become.”

Ramey said, “Tad has moved on to TRECA/META and is now Vice President of Director of Innovation and Development. Tad has always been active in River Valley and Marion Area events. Our state 4-H Lego Robotics program books I and II were created by Tad. He was also the person who first came up with the idea that we could host the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Educational Foundation’s National Robotics Challenge in Marion in 2002 when they could no longer afford to run the operation at the Rochester Institute of Technology.”

Ramey said, “He, Ed Goodwin and I conceived the idea on a bus ride home from Rochester, New York. We thought Marion area could do a great job hosting the event because of many of the people in the audience tonight. We hosted our first event in Marion and 13 years later it has grown from a contest of 160 students and 45 teams into a contest that has more than 1200 students and 600 teams that annually attend in Marion each April. Our highly successful RAMTEC Vex Robotics League and the new RAMTEC Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering programs have grown into national prominence from this contest.”

“Tad has actively served on our advisory committees and is currently helping RAMTEC develop new online curriculum that will enable students and our adult workforce to earn Yaskawa Motoman Robotics Certification nationally, said Ramey. “He is also the first person I called when we were planning a new revolutionary concept of a “student build your own” 3D printer program for middle school students and hobbyists.”

  “Tad is an integral part of the success of our school. Without his constant support, friendship and collaboration there would be no National Robotics Challenge (NRC), RAMTEC Vex Robotics League and more than likely RAMTEC. He was one of the leaders in the community that helped us create the vision.  We would like to thank our superintendent for building and completing our vision of a seamless 4^th grade through college robotics and manufacturing training facility that will continue to allow Marion to be a national leader in robotics education for many years to come. With people like Tad Douce involved it will continue to constantly improve and evolve into a world class training facility.”

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