George Housner: A Personal Remembrance

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

[1]  G. W. Housner,et al.  Problems in Seismic Zoning , 1974 .

[2]  Francesco Pisano,et al.  International decade for natural disaster reduction. , 1998, MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report.

[3]  G. D. McCann,et al.  The analysis of strong-motion earthquake records with the Electric Analog Computor , 1949 .

[4]  George W. Housner,et al.  EARTHQUAKE RESEARCH PROBLEMS OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS , 1966 .

[5]  P. C. Jennings.  Simulated earthquake motions for design purposes , 1968 .

[6]  George W. Housner,et al.  Analysis of ground motions at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station April 9, 1968 , 1970 .

[7]  D. E. Hudson,et al.  An analysis of strong-motion accelerometer data from the San Francisco earthquake of March 22, 1957 , 1958 .

[8]  G. Housner.  AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING , 1984 .

[9]  George W. Housner.  Earthquake pressures on fluid containers , 1954 .

[10]  George W. Housner,et al.  The efffct of torsional oscillations on earthquake stresses , 1958 .

[11]  D. E. Hudson,et al.  Preliminary report on the engineering aspects of the San Fernando, California, earthquake of February 9 1971 , 1971, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

[12]  George W. Housner.  Calculating the response of an oscillator to arbitrary ground motion , 1941 .

[13]  George W. Housner,et al.  Ambient Vibration Tests of a Suspension Bridge , 1978 .

[14]  Jr Davis.  Progress report on safety and security of power supply: nuclear power plants and earthquakes , 1974 .

[15]  George W. Housner,et al.  Competing against Time: Report of the Governor's Board of Inquiry on the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake , 1990 .

[16]  G. W. Housner,et al.  Limit Design of Structures to Resist Earthquakes , 1956 .

[17]  George W. Housner,et al.  Numerical Model for Tsunami Run-Up , 1970 .

[18]  George W. Housner,et al.  Effect of foundation compliance on earthquake stresses in multistory buildings , 1954 .

[19]  P. C. Jennings,et al.  A Selection of important strong motion earthquake records , 1980 .

[20]  G. Housner.  The dynamic behavior of water tanks , 1963 .

[21]  G. Housner.  Dynamic pressures on accelerated fluid containers , 1957 .

[22]  George W. Housner,et al.  Spectrum Intensities of Strong-Motion Earthquakes , 1952 .

[23]  George W. Housner,et al.  Integrated velocity and displacement of strong earthquake ground motion , 1961 .

[24]  George W. Housner,et al.  VIBRATION TESTS OF A STEEL-FRAME BUILDING , 1954 .

[25]  George W. Housner,et al.  Spectrum analysis of strong-motion earthquakes , 1953 .

[26]  Confronting natural disasters , 1987, Nature.

[27]  A M Abdel-Ghaffar,et al.  ANALYSIS AND TESTS OF SUSPENSION BRIDGE VIBRATIONS , 1977 .

[28]  Medhat A. Haroun,et al.  Free Lateral Vibrations of Liquid Storage Tanks , 1979 .

[29]  George W. Housner,et al.  WHAT THE IDNDR HAS MEANT TO THE EARTHQUAKE COMMUNITY , 2000 .

[30]  Mihailo D. Trifunac,et al.  Analysis of accelerograms—Parkfield earthquake , 1967 .

[31]  Medhat A. Haroun,et al.  Dynamic Characteristics of Liquid Storage Tanks , 1982 .

[32]  George W. Housner,et al.  The Port Hueneme earthquake of March 18, 1957 , 1958 .

[33]  G. Housner.  Interaction of building and ground during an earthquake , 1957 .

[34]  G. W. Housner,et al.  A dynamic test of a four-story reinforced concrete building , 1953 .

[35]  Medhat A. Haroun,et al.  Earthquake Response of Deformable Liquid Storage Tanks , 1981 .

[36]  George W. Housner,et al.  The Continuing Challenge: Report on the Performance of State Bridges in the Northridge Earthquake , 1995 .

[37]  George W. Housner.  Opinion Paper: The Cost of a Life , 1999 .

[38]  Medhat A. Haroun.  Dynamic analyses of liquid storage tanks , 1980 .

[39]  George W. Housner,et al.  Earthquake Research Needs for Nuclear Power Plants , 1971 .

[40]  George W. Housner,et al.  The mechanism of sandblows , 1958 .

[41]  George W. Housner.  Ground displacement computed from strong-motion accelerograms , 1947 .

[42]  G. W. Housner,et al.  Recent developments in active structural control research in the USA , 1992, Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring.

[43]  P. C. Jennings,et al.  Simulated earthquake motions , 1968 .

[44]  T. T. Soong,et al.  An Overview of Active Structural Control under Seismic Loads , 1991 .

[45]  G. Housner.  The behavior of inverted pendulum structures during earthquakes , 1963 .

[46]  George W. Housner,et al.  Response of a structure to an explosive-generated ground shock , 1954 .

[47]  G. Housner.  Current practice in the design of structures to resist earthquakes , 1949 .

[48]  George W. Housner,et al.  Characteristics of strong-motion earthquakes , 1947 .

[49]  G. Housner.  Properties of strong ground motion earthquakes , 1955 .

[50]  G. W. Housner,et al.  The Plastic Failure of Frames During Earthquakes , 1960 .

[51]  George W. Housner.  Koyna earthquake of December 11, 1967: Report of the Expert Committee on electrical and mechanical equipment , 1970 .

[52]  George W. Housner.  Opinion Paper Unexpected Stress Failures during Earthquakes , 1997 .

[53]  George W. Housner,et al.  The response of veterans hospital building 41 in the San Fernando earthquake , 1982 .

[54]  Mete A. Sozen,et al.  Engineering report on the Caracas Earthquake of 29 July 1967 , 1968 .

[55]  G. W. Housner,et al.  Calculation of surface motions of a layered half-space , 1970, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

[56]  T. T. Soong,et al.  Second Generation of Active Structural Control in Civil Engineering , 1996 .

[57]  G. Housner,et al.  Hydrodynamic pressures on sloping dams during earthquakes. Part 1. Momentum method , 1978 .

[58]  George W. Housner,et al.  Intensity of ground motion during strong earthquakes , 1952 .

[59]  Cheng-Tien Chieu.  Bending vibrations of a pipe line containing flowing fluid , 1970 .

[60]  Rg Norman.  Earthquake engineering research , 1972 .

[61]  George W. Housner,et al.  Aseismic design and testing of nuclear facilities Technical reports series No. 88, international atomic energy agency, Vienna, 1968. $1.00 , 1968 .

[62]  Medhat A. Haroun,et al.  Seismic Design of Liquid Storage Tanks , 1981 .

[63]  G. W. Housner.  Earthquake Resistant Design Based on Dynamic Properties of Earthquakes , 1956 .

[64]  G. Housner,et al.  The Estimation of Linear Trends , 1948 .

[65]  George W. Housner,et al.  Earthquake design criteria for structures , 1977 .

[66]  George W. Housner.  The Momentum-Balance Method in Earthquake Engineering , 1966 .