George Housner: A Personal Remembrance

Abstract

George W. Housner, C F Braun Professor of Engineering, Emeritus, died after a short illness on 10 November 2008, just a few weeks before his 98th birthday. He was in the retirement home in Pasadena where he had lived for several years. For all of us who knew George, this marked the end of an era. Few people have guided and nurtured a field the way George led earthquake engineering over a period of several decades. He had a profound effect on many people and will long be remembered. His impact was so pervasive that he had earned the title of the “Father of Earthquake Engineering.” This article records some of my thoughts about this remarkable man. First, let me remind readers of some facts about his life. He was born 9 December 1910 in Saginaw, Michigan. He had an older brother who died very young and a sister, a childhood victim of polio, who died as a young adult. He went to public schools in Michigan and enrolled at the University of Michigan, where he obtained a B.S. in Civil Engineering in 1933. He then moved to California and received his M.S. in Civil Engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). After graduation he worked as a practicing engineer in Los Angeles for six years. He returned to Caltech in 1939 and earned a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering in 1941. His thesis advisor was R. R. Martel, himself a pioneer in earthquake engineering. George served as a civilian in the Army Air Force during World War II, doing operations analysis in Africa and Italy, finishing