×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Ralph B. Peck 1912-2008

Ralph B. Peck 1912-2008

Ralph B. Peck 1912-2008

(OP)
In case some of you haven't seen this in the Geotechnical Engineering Other Topics Forum:

Ralph B. Peck  1912 – 2008

Ralph B. Peck, Professor Emeritus of Foundation Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign died of congestive heart failure on February 18, 2008, at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  He was born in Winnipeg, Canada, to his American parents, Orwin K and Ethel Huyck Peck on June 23, 1912.  

Ralph Peck earned a Civil Engineering Degree in 1934 and Doctor of Civil Engineering Degree in 1937, both from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.  In 1938-39 he attended the Soil Mechanics course at Harvard University and was a laboratory assistant to Arthur Casagrande.  From 1939 to 1942 Peck was an assistant subway engineer for the City of Chicago, representing Karl Terzaghi who was a consultant on the Chicago Subway Project.  He joined the University of Illinois in 1942, and was a Professor of Foundation Engineering from 1948 to 1974.  Since 1974, Professor Peck was a Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois, and a consultant in geotechnical engineering.

In 1948, together with Karl Terzaghi, Ralph Peck co-authored the most influential text book in geotechnical engineering, Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice.  In 1953 with Walt Hanson and Tom Thornburn, Ralph Peck co-authored the widely used text book Foundation Engineering.

In 1942, Dr. Peck joined the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Illinois, where he remained as a teacher and mentor until his retirement as Professor Emeritus in 1974.  After moving to Albuquerque, Dr. Peck continued his active consulting practice which included jobs in forty-four states in the USA and twenty-eight countries on five continents.  His more than one thousand consulting projects include:  the rapid transit systems in Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington; the Alaskan Pipeline System; the James Bay Project in Quebec;  and the Dead Sea dikes.  He authored over 250 technical publications, and served as the President of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering from 1969 to 1973.  In 1974, he was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Ford.  A few of his many honors include the Norman Medal, The Wellington Prize, and the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Education from the American Society of Engineers.  His last project was the Rion-Antirion Bridge in Greece.  It received the ASCE’s OPAL Outstanding Civil Engineering Award for 2005, and is the only project outside the United States to be so honored.

Ralph Peck married Marjorie E. Truby on June 14, 1937.  He is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Nancy Peck (Allen) Young, and son and daughter-in-law, James (Laurie) Peck, and grandchildren, Michael Young and Maia Peck.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to:

            Ralph B. Peck Geotechnical Engineering Fund
            Univ. of Illinois Foundation
            1305 West Green Street, MC-386
            Urbana, Illinois, 61801.

Sincerely,

Nancy Peck Young

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 12:28 AM

RE: Ralph B. Peck 1912-2008

Thank you for sharing this about your grandfather.  What a wonderful and fulfilling life he had!  Many of us who only knew him through his books and publications nevertheless felt honored to belong to the same profession as he did.

RE: Ralph B. Peck 1912-2008

I must apologize.  Of course Dr. Peck was your father, not grandfather.

RE: Ralph B. Peck 1912-2008

(OP)
hokie66,

I'm not Nancy Peck Young!  She did not post this item.  I only copied and pasted her announcement.

RE: Ralph B. Peck 1912-2008

Well, then, I apologize to you as well.  Wasn't having a good day yesterday.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources