Exploring the world, rooted in Auburn

Pat Carroll has seen the world. But, as they say, there’s no place like home.

“I freaking love Auburn,” said Carroll, a 1987 aerospace engineering graduate.

After graduating from Auburn University, Carroll began his career with McDonnell Douglas on the Tomahawk cruise missile program in Titusville, Florida. During this time, Carroll witnessed the 1988 Space Shuttle Discovery launch.

“That was one of the most memorable events of my life,” said Carroll, originally from Birmingham. “You don’t even have to be an engineer to appreciate watching a massive rocket launch. It was more emotional than I would have expected. You just don’t realize the magnitude of it and the sense of national pride that swells when you see that.”

Carroll says he always knew he’d be an engineer. His curiosity about how things work was fueled by his engineer father.

“When I was a kid, my dad gave me a chainsaw he’d found on the side of the road and told me to take it apart and put it back together,” he said. “Though he had explained it to me, I never really understood how it worked until I took it apart.”  

After a couple years in Florida, Carroll moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, to join his father’s new company, Freightliner of Knoxville. Carroll spent the rest of his career there, eventually buying the company and selling it to the Penske organization before retiring in 2017. Since then, he’s rediscovered his love of adventure riding.

Carroll estimates he’s ridden around 50,000-60,000 miles on his motorcycle over the past few years. He has traveled the globe south to north, some with a riding partner and some with travel companies.

“I’ve had my boots in the Atlantic, Pacific and southern oceans,” he said. “This past summer we rode up to Alaska, which took about 30 days, and got to see the Arctic Ocean. All I’ve got left is the Indian Ocean.”

His longest trip to date was from Cartagena, Columbia, to Ushuaia, Argentina. The 12,000-mile journey took two and a half months and included seeing Machu Pichu, the Andes Mountains, Patagonia and the Nazca Lines. He’s ridden across Alaska, ending in Prudhoe Bay, just 500 miles from the North Pole.

Sure, he could cover the ground in an RV or see the world with the help of airplanes, but Carroll says the stories he’s gathered up are priceless. One such memorable moment happened near Deadwood, South Dakota, when he and his group were headed into town to spend the night at a hotel and got caught in a hailstorm.

“It was an absolute deluge with dime-sized hail coming down,” he recounted. “It rained so hard that it was flooding in the hotel lobby when we arrived. It was just a crazy experience. I dig those moments. It’s kind of uncomfortable but it just makes such good stories. I love the adventure of it.”

On another adventure, he was traveling across rural South America and stopped in a tiny oasis town for lunch. Inside the restaurant, he spotted a gentleman wearing an Auburn shirt.

“I don’t know if the man spoke any English, but I said, ‘War Eagle!’ and he said, ‘War Eagle’ back and we took a selfie,” Carroll said. “I love that about Auburn.”

Carroll is a proud supporter of the College of Engineering; the place he says prepared him for his career successes. He’s seen the next generation get that same experience through his son, who studied chemical engineering at Auburn.

“I love supporting Auburn,” Carroll said. “It’s just special. I’m sure everyone says that about their alma mater, but they just don’t know about Auburn.”