Thomas J. Grizzard Jr., professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech and director of its Occoquan Watershed Monitoring Laboratory for 40 years, has died at 70.
His expertise in the urban water cycle and four decades of work at the laboratory made Grizzard, Ph.D., M.ASCE, so influential, he would be known as “the protector of the Occoquan.” He also served Virginia Tech...
Distinguished Member Miguel A. Mariño, U.S. representative to the International Association of Hydrological Sciences from 2003 through 2008 and a prolific groundwater hydrology researcher, has died. He was 76.
Mariño was distinguished professor emeritus of hydrologic sciences in the University of California, Davis departments of civil and environmental engineering, and biological and agricultural engineering. The products of Mariño’s research have been adopted around the world,...
Distinguished Member John M. Hanson, nationally renowned as an investigator of high-profile failures of concrete and steel structures, and a former president of Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc., has died. He was 84.
Hanson, Ph.D., P.E., NAE, Dist.M.ASCE, retired from WJE’s board of directors in 2014 after a 42-year career with the firm, including serving as president from 1979 through 1992. He managed some of...
Steven P. Reiner of Upland, CA, a versatile engineer in southern California and Denver known for his work in commercial land development, has died. He was 66.
Reiner, P.E., M.ASCE, was a project manager with Psomas based in Los Angeles. He was a licensed civil engineer for more than 40 years. Over the course of his career, he rose to become vice president of Hall...
Indrajit J. Ghosh, a widely traveled civil and environmental engineer on nuclear power projects who served as a local ASCE president in South Carolina and Washington state, has died at the age of 73.
Ghosh, P.E., F.ASCE, began his career in 1967 in his native India, then left for the United Kingdom a year later. At the height of nuclear power projects, he emigrated to...
Distinguished Member Jacob Dekema, a World War II veteran and former San Diego Section president who supervised the postwar boom of freeway construction in and around San Diego, has died at 101.
As supervisor of the state transportation department’s District 11 from 1955 to 1980, Dekema was able to carry out an early vision for San Diego that shapes it to this day. Family, friends...
Omer Franklin Poorman, P.E., L.S., F.ASCE, an Army veteran of World War II who dedicated his career to the Texas Highway Department as a district engineer, died Feb. 5. He was 92.
Poorman served with valor during World War II with the U.S. Army in northern France. Upon his return, he earned a bachelor of science in civil engineering from the University of Houston in...
James H. “Jim” Kleinfelder, P.E., M.ASCE, an ASCE Life Member who launched one of the first major engineering firms to delve into environmental services, died March 5. He was 82.
Shortly after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, Kleinfelder began working for the city of Stockton as a resident engineer. In 1961, he invested his life savings in a construction-materials engineering and testing firm,...
Cornelis "Neil" Geldof Jr., former director of engineering and planning for the Metropolitan District Commission serving the Hartford, CT, area, and a former president of the Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers Section, died March 25. He was 70.
Geldof, P.E., grew up in Yonkers, NY, and studied civil engineering at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY. After graduating in 1969, he was hired by the Connecticut...
Gordon A. Walhood Sr., an ASCE Fellow who helped design New Mexico’s Cochiti Dan during a career spent with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, died on Jan. 18. He was 96.
A longtime resident of Albuquerque, NM, Walhood, P.E., F.ASCE, received his B.S. in civil engineering from North Dakota Agricultural College (now NDSU) in 1941, and was a member of Sigma Phi Delta.
Upon graduation,...
