Biography
It all started with my 6th grade paper on rocks, or at least that’s how I explain it. My mother was from Sheboygan WI and my father was from Windsor CO, but we wound up in Boulder, CO so my brothers and I could grow up in a university town. I matriculated in engineering at the University of Colorado, and through a lucky summer job as student trainee engineer in Rocky Mountain National Park, discovered Civil Engineering. Better yet I later discovered that Civil Engineering involved rock & soil mechanics and geology. After a PhD in Civil Engineering at University of Illinois, a Post Doc at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, and four years on the faculty at MIT, I joined the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Northwestern in 1976.
Since my wife, Jane, and I have family in Wisconsin, NU was a perfect location for us. We settled in Winnetka, raised two daughters who became engineers (one graduating from NU), had careers in finance, and are now raising children. Jane was a computer programmer and is now active in the NU Circle. I wrote four books, participated in Program Review at its inception with President Weber, started and sold a company that autonomously monitored blasting vibrations near coal mines in the 1980’s, graduated several hands full of PhDs and retired as Associate Department Chair. My research has focused on rock and soil mechanics and computerized instrumentation, which served as the basis of my books. My consulting assignments, which have taken me to thirty states, included projects such as the Trans Alaska Pipeline, Panama Canal, blasting train tunnels into Grand Central Station, and vibrating hoodoos in Bryce Canyon National Park.
I am taking advantage of NU retirement benefits of a shared office, “nearly” free parking, and NU ID & email to research with undergrads, rewrite my book on Construction Vibrations, and publish a monthly listserv newsletter. Locally, I currently serve as Chair of the Winnetka Environmental and Forestry Commission. Having just become emeritus in January of 2018, Jane and I are enjoying freedom from being tied down, so we may miss a few of the wonderful NEO lunches and dinners.