Peter Petrecca has been the lone Georgia Tech engineer in his family for decades. That changes in December when his grandson graduates exactly 60 years after Petrecca finished his degree.

By: Joshua Stewart (jstewart@gatech.edu)
Peter Petrecca and his grandson Cole Rogers in McCamish Pavilion.

Peter Petrecca, left, with his grandson Cole Rogers — Georgia Tech engineers who graduated 60 years apart. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)

When Cole Rogers got the notice four years ago that he’d been moved off the waitlist and admitted to Georgia Tech, he knew exactly who to call first.

His grandfather, Peter Petrecca, had studied aerospace engineering at Tech and had a long career in aviation, engineering, and product development. No one would celebrate the news more, so Rogers called him with the news before he even told his parents. 

Petrecca had raised three daughters and exposed them to engineering and making things. But none had been interested enough to make it a career — or study at Tech.

“Then Cole came along, and I had another opportunity,” Petrecca said. “We made model cars and motorcycles together and did other things. I wasn't sure he was going to go the engineering route, but I was thrilled when he got accepted.”

Now Rogers is graduating with his industrial engineering bachelor’s degree, and in the sometimes funny way history echoes itself, he’ll walk across the stage exactly 60 years after his grandfather finished his own degree.

It’s a path that probably has been quietly paved throughout Rogers’ life, during all his visits to his grandfather’s house.

“In the recreation room in his basement, he’s got all of his patents on the wall,” Rogers said. “When I was a kid, I would look at them and think it was really cool to have contributed to the invention of something.”

And then there were all the trips to the Capstone Design Expo. Petrecca has long been a judge at Georgia Tech’s signature event for senior design projects, and Rogers has been coming with him since middle school.

“When you're middle school and early high school age, and you're seeing companies trust college students with something important, that's cool to see,” Rogers said. “I realized they weren’t much older than me, and they're getting all that trust.”

That combination could be partly why Rogers is trying his hand at entrepreneurship as he wraps up his degree. He was part of a CREATE-X capstone team that’s building software to digitize medication tracking and paperwork for skilled nursing facilities. He has a few months before he starts work at a construction software firm called Kahua, so he and his teammates will use that time to refine their product and work with clients to test it in the real world.

Petrecca has been involved in startups himself. After working at Lockheed and then at a small firm, he spent 20 years at Nordson Corp. developing products and managing product development teams. When he retired and wasn’t quite ready to stop working, he connected with Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) and helped build two startup companies. Then he created his own consulting company to connect engineers with manufacturing to produce the products they were creating.

“I found in the ATDC startups that they had a great idea, and they really knew the technology. But they didn't really know the ins and outs of how you could take that idea to production,” Petrecca said. “And I had a lot of expertise in doing that.”

Cole Rogers sits on steps in his graduation regalia.

(Courtesy: Cole Rogers)

That career in product development was the source of the 12 patents Rogers admired in his basement — mostly for equipment that applies hot adhesives and sealants at Nordson but also one for a bioreactor from his time at ATDC.

Petrecca’s years at Tech included historic times — Bobby Dodd as football coach and the arrival of the 1930 Ford Model A Sport Coupe that became the iconic Ramblin’ Wreck among them. Petrecca also played a hand in building wrecks with his fraternity for the Ramblin’ Wreck Parade — crazy contraptions he said he’s still proud of because his group spent many long nights applying their engineering lessons to create rolling spectacles.

This is an area where history echoes again for Petrecca and Rogers, who also has found a close-knit community in his fraternity and — after some down years — enjoyed a historic football season under coach Brent Key.

“I have never missed a game,” Rogers said with a smile, “and I have never left early from a football game, even when we were terrible. You only get so many.”

That kind of dedication to the Yellow Jackets is shared across Rogers’ family. His other grandfather — his dad’s dad — didn’t attend Tech but has been a die-hard fan all his life.

The plan is for both grandfathers to be in McCamish Pavilion when Rogers makes the trip across the stage at Commencement. And for Petrecca, it will be a sweet moment: after 60 years, finally celebrating having another official Yellow Jacket in the family.

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