Larry Fickel ’81 Becomes First in College to Earn Provost Teaching Award
The senior lecturer combines decades of real-world construction experience with a focus on preparing students for their careers — and for life.
Larry Fickel ’81, a senior lecturer in the Texas A&M University Department of Construction Science, is a 2025–2026 recipient of the Provost Academic Professional Track (APT) Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. Photo by John Peters/Texas A&M College of Architecture Marketing & Communications.
Ask Larry Fickel ’81 to describe his teaching philosophy, and he’ll tell you there is no fancy secret.
“I’m teaching students about construction,” Fickel explained, “but my goal is to teach them about life.”
Fickel, a senior lecturer in the Texas A&M University Department of Construction Science, is one of the 2025–2026 recipients of the Provost Academic Professional Track (APT) Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. The Center for Teaching Excellence presented the award on Wednesday, March 4.
The university-level honor recognizes 10 faculty members each year for outstanding, student-centered teaching. Recipients hold the title for life and receive a $5,000 grant to support teaching initiatives.
In the award’s seven-year history, Fickel is the first recipient from the College of Architecture.
“Larry has risen to the top of the construction world in industry, and now in academia,” said Dr. Phil Lewis, head of the Department of Construction Science. “He always puts the best interests of the students and the department ahead of his own.”
Fickel’s path to this recognition has never followed a traditional academic blueprint. Of the award’s 67 recipients, Fickel is the only honoree whose highest earned degree is a bachelor’s degree. His students credit his expert industry knowledge and a genuine commitment to helping them succeed.
He holds the Donna Beth and Jim Thompson ’68 Leadership Professorship and was the first non-tenured faculty member in the College of Architecture to receive an endowed professorship.
Fickel earned his degree at Texas A&M, where his connection to the university began as a first-generation student.
From the Jobsite to the Classroom
After graduating from the Department of Construction Science in 1981, Fickel launched a successful 34-year career in the construction industry. He worked his way up from carpenter to director, taking on roles across the country. Along the way, he moved 16 times across state lines for work. “I was the ‘go do the big job’ or ‘fix the bad job’ guy,” added Fickel.
When the opportunity to teach full-time came up in 2015, he saw it as a chance to settle down, spend more time at home and stay closely connected to the industry.
Now, Fickel is best known for teaching COSC 477 Construction Project Controls, a required senior course on managing schedules, budgets and resources. Fickel connects course material to real-life decision-making from day one.
In the class, his first homework assignment is a personal budget. “I watched the people who took the best care of the company’s money. They generally were the people who took the best care of their money, so that’s where we start,” he noted.
Fickel also challenges students to embrace discomfort and reject complacency, telling them that staying comfortable means falling behind because “there's no such thing as staying where you're at.”
He builds and improves his own courses with the same kind of accountability. “I still use the old paper reviews that nobody's ever seen anymore,” said Fickel, who finds that students write more helpful feedback than they do in online forms.
In one of last semester’s paper evaluations, one student described the energy Fickel brings to every class:
In one of last semester’s paper evaluations, one student described the energy Fickel brings to every class:
“Professor Fickel genuinely cares about his students, first and foremost. He doesn't have a fancy secret or scientific formula that made his class specifically unique, but he is truly real and authentic to the core. He shares his valuable real-world and real-life experiences to prepare his students for any challenges we may face in work, or more importantly, life.”
Larry Fickel ’81 reviews a paper course evaluation from fall 2025 in his office in Francis Hall. The form includes 11 standardized questions and a blank side for students to write feedback on the course’s most and least effective elements. Photo by John Peters/Texas A&M College of Architecture Marketing & Communications.
A Legacy Built With Others
Fickel credits one professor who helped shape who he is as an educator: Charles McMullen, a retired Air Force instructor who taught at Texas A&M and served as faculty advisor for the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) student chapter.
“I don’t even remember what he taught,” Fickel recalled. “I just remember him.”
Supported by McMullen, Fickel served as president of the AGC student chapter during his senior year in 1981. Today, Fickel has served as the chapter’s faculty advisor since 2017.
Recent construction science graduate Nana Dolley ’26 said she joined the AGC student chapter after a friend, Carissa Cowan ’26, encouraged her to get involved. Dolley later served as an officer and described Fickel as a trusted mentor whose authenticity and care for students stood out from the start.
“We would not be who we are today without him,” Dolley added.
A plaque (left) and certificate (right) displayed in Larry Fickel’s office recognize his service as president of the Texas A&M Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) student chapter in fall 1981. The certificate was presented at the Annual AGC Banquet and signed by then-faculty advisor Charles D. McMullen. Photos by John Peters/Texas A&M College of Architecture Marketing & Communications.
In 2025, Fickel was named AGC’s National Construction Educator of the Year, becoming only the second Texas A&M faculty member to receive the distinction after Professor Emeritus Bob Segner in 1999.
Construction science students have recognized Fickel's lasting influence on them year after year. He urges them to think beyond the projects they will build and to focus instead on the lessons they teach others.
“When you're dead and gone, there will be people who have your legacy, but they won't know it's your legacy,” Fickel said.
Passing It On
In over 10 years of teaching, Fickel has taught more than 6,000 students, and his favorite part of the job is working hands-on with them. “That's the difference in the world — what we can help these students become,” he said.
Students have recognized his commitment by selecting him as a seven-time winner of the department's Outstanding Student Advocate Award.
Fickel and his wife, Jennifer, established an endowed scholarship fund that provides over $8,000 in scholarships annually to support construction science students. Each spring, the Fickels meet the scholarship recipients at the department's awards banquet. And in recent years, he has often taught them in his project controls course.
“I'm blessed to get to hang out every day with a bunch of young people that hopefully want to go and make things better in our industry after they leave here,” he said.
Fickel’s dedication to students earned him another distinction earlier this year, adding one more “first” to his record. In January, he became the inaugural recipient of the College of Architecture's Outstanding Mentor Award.
Larry Fickel ’81 sits at his desk in his Francis Hall office surrounded by personal mementos and teaching honors from the Texas A&M College of Architecture, the Department of Construction Science and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). Photo by John Peters/Texas A&M College of Architecture Marketing & Communications.
For a professor who teaches students to measure their legacy in people rather than projects, Fickel’s Provost APT Teaching Excellence Award reflects a decade spent doing exactly that.
Debra Ellis, J.D., visiting senior lecturer in construction science, said Fickel’s support for students extends well beyond the classroom. In a nomination letter, Ellis wrote that she has seen him step in when students face real hardships.
“I have seen his heart when there is a student in true need,” Ellis said. “He is there for every student — emotionally, financially, and when tough love is needed, he is there for that too.”
When he was hired, Fickel recalled he told then-department head Joe Horlen he would do the job for 10 to 12 years. Long enough, he believed, to stay closely connected to the industry. He plans to retire in 2027, his 12th year teaching.
Until then, he will keep doing what he has always done: teaching construction, teaching life and building the people who will build what comes next.