The standard-setting co-founder and first president of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Howard Simpson has died at 97. Guided by Simpson’s expertise, SGH fast became one of the nation’s best for solving complex engineering problems in structural mechanics.
Simpson, P.E., F.ASCE, launched SGH in 1956 along with two of his academic colleagues. His know-how in engineering mechanics and precision structures – such as radars, antennas, and radio...
David Maher Warner, a transportation engineer and project management consultant responsible for several notable projects in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area, has died at 71.
During a career spent with several prominent engineering firms in the Twin Cities region, Warner, P.E., M.ASCE, led appreciative partners and teams in major projects requiring intensive client interaction. He was known for drawing the best from his staffs.
Starting at Edwards...
Robert M. Koerner, professor emeritus of Drexel University and director emeritus of the Geosynthetic Institute, has died at 85.
Together with his wife and partner, Paula Koerner, he founded the Geosynthetic Institute as a research organization with international outreach programs for the design of geosynthetic materials in construction.
Koerner, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE(Ret.), Dist.M.ASCE, NAE, began his career in construction, and worked on a number of projects,...
Marvin N. Smith, a hydraulics engineer who spent the bulk of his career at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Water Systems Development Laboratory, has died at 87.
An ASCE Life Member, Smith, M.ASCE, spent over 30 years employed at the TVA lab in Norris, Tennessee. He was a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officer, serving on active duty and in the reserves, and received a commission...
Kim Palmer de Rubertis, a specialist in dams in Washington state who shared his expertise on ASCE committees that produced guidelines and handbooks for dam engineering, has died at 81.
De Rubertis, P.E., CEG, D.GE, F.ASCE, was known for a passion to improve dam safety by reducing human error. In 2016, he was awarded ASCE's Rickey Medal for contributing to the advancement of knowledge in...
Robert G. Tracy, an expert in concrete applications, notably restorations, and the founder of two consulting firms in Michigan, has died at 72.
Tracy, P.E., M.ASCE, applied much of his experience toward concrete deterioration analysis and restoration program development throughout the United States. In the past few years he worked to preserve and restore historic structures in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, his home state.
After...
Stanley M. Bemben of New Britain, Connecticut, a gifted structural analyst, former University of Massachusetts Amherst civil engineering professor, and consultant, has died at 85.
In his youth, he boasted that he knew how to build things and “could do it better than others.” It was fitting, then, that he chose to make civil engineering his career. Proving he could indeed do it better than...
Robert Clark Ewing, a structural engineer in demand during America's rapidly growing postwar years, and an expert on foundations who shored up famed Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eudora Welty's house, has died at 99.
Ewing, P.E., F.ASCE, “Bob” to his friends, was a dedicated engineer whose trail of works took him from Seattle to the Willamette Valley in Oregon through Memphis, Tennessee, and down to Jackson,...
John W. Weaver II, founder and former managing principal of Weaver Consultants Group in Chicago, has died at 66 in a tragic plane crash that also claimed the lives of his sons John III, 40, and Matthew, 38.
Weaver, P.E., M.ASCE, was born in Elkhart, Indiana, where his father had been mayor. He got an early jump on his career while still in sixth grade,...
Jerry R. Bayless, a longtime civil, architectural and environmental engineering professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology who was such an institution there, he was known as "Mr. S&T," has died at 81.
Bayless, P.E., F.ASCE, earned his bachelor of science in 1959 from what was then known as the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, and essentially never left, hired the day of...
