David Ratterman earns 2019 AISC Lifetime Achievement Award

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) recently honored Stites & Harbison, PLLC attorney David B. Ratterman with the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award at the North American Steel Construction Conference (NASCC) held in St. Louis from April 3-5, 2019.

The Lifetime Achievement Awards honor individuals who have provided outstanding service to AISC and the structural steel design/construction/academic community for a sustained period of years. Ratterman spent 30 years as AISC Secretary and General Counsel, serving under four presidents, 15 board chairs, and hundreds of board and committee members.

Ratterman is a Senior Member (Partner) of Stites & Harbison in the Construction Service Group. His practice focuses on general construction law, with particular emphasis on the fabricated structural steel industry. His immersion in the construction industry began as a water boy on construction sites at age 10 and evolved through a series of engineering and construction positions with the U.S. Navy, state government and private industry.

Ratterman received a bachelor of science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kentucky. In 2014, Ratterman was inducted into the UK College of Engineering Hall of Distinguished Alumni. In 2012, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the UK Alumni Association which recognizes those who have provided extraordinary service to the university and the association. Also in 2012, AISC named a college scholarship program in his honor, referred to as the “David B. Ratterman Fast Start AISC Scholarship.” The scholarship program provides financial assistance to 10 college-age children of the steel industry’s blue- and white-collar families each year. To date, more than 100 scholarships have been awarded. He is a Life Member and past President of the UK Alumni Association, a UK Fellow, and has been a member of the UK Advocacy Network since its inception.

“David has dedicated his career to the construction and steel industries,” said Robert M. Connolly, Chair of Stites & Harbison. “He has helped so many clients and has inspired so many people. He is an outstanding attorney, and an incredible person. No one is more deserving of this honor than David.”

AISC is a non-partisan, not-for-profit technical institute and trade association established in 1921 to serve the structural steel design community and construction industry in the United States. Its mission is to make structural steel the material of choice.