Kent Shreeve, a forensic engineering specialist and founder of Shreeve Engineers in Little Rock, AR, has died. He was 81.
After serving as a civil engineer lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, Shreeve, P.E., M.ASCE, began his civilian career at Shell Oil Company in Ventura, CA. From there he went to Humble Oil and Refining in Baton Rouge, LA, before later returning to his home state of Arkansas, where he worked at AFCO Steel, in Little Rock.
In 1972, he began Shreeve Engineering Inc., fulfilling his two chief interests, industrial plants and the investigation of structural failure.
“A structural engineer extraordinaire,” is how he was described by Chris Corbitt, P.E., Esq., of ASCE’s Arkansas Section. Just last year, many enjoyed Shreeve’s presentation to the Central Arkansas Branch on The Fifty-Nine-Story Crisis at Citicorp Center in New York City, referring to the 1978 discovery of a defect in the tower (and its correction).
Shreeve was the president of Sigma Chi, Theta Tau, and Ta Beta Pi at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, earning his bachelor and master’s degrees in civil engineering along the way. Much later, he was active in the Arkansas Academy of Civil Engineering, where contributing to scholarships for civil engineering students was a primary pleasure.
He was also a member of the Structural Engineers Association of Arkansas, a conference speaker at the Arkansas Society of Professional Engineers, and a Paul Harris Fellow at his Rotary Club.
A collector of classic books and observer of wildlife, Shreeve also had a special talent for playing piano concerts of jazz ballads at the local arts center and at churches.
