1950’s to 1960’s

Keith Lautenbach, B.S.1950 Civil, stopped by the Colorado State Engineering exhibit at the Western Stock Show with his family—great grandson Aiden, grandson Brian, and daughter Barbara Lautenbach. Now retired, after 35 years as a highway engineer with the Federal Highway Administration, Keith says that he is enjoying making trips to great engineering projects around the world. Over the past three years, he has walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, taken a tram ride through the new bridge and tunnel crossing between Copenhagen, Denmark, and Malmo, Sweden, and traveled through the Channel Tunnel connecting England and France. In March, Keith will be sailing through the Panama Canal. (Spring 2007 newsletter)

Ron Miller, B.S. 1951 Civil Engineering, passed away on October 22, 2004. He worked oversees with Caterpillar Tractor for many years. In 1969 he became CEO of Hastings Deering, the Caterpillar dealer for Queensland. In 1984, he founded Ron Miller & Associates to assist fellow CEOs, acting as a resource for world-wide best practices in many fields including manufacturing, mining, airlines, railways, and utilities. Mr. Miller became State President of the Australian Institute of Management, followed by a term as the National President of AIM, and later was honored with life membership for his services to the profession of management. (Spring 2005 newsletter)

Oliver E. Norris, B.S. 1951 Civil Engineering, is retired and living in Houston, Texas. (Fall 2004 newsletter)

Rex Sjostrom, B.S. 1952 Civil, M.S. 1956 Electrical, passed away on May 31, 2006. Sjostrom’s professional career spanned nearly 40 years of outstanding engineering and management accomplishment, culminating in his position as director of one of the most technically advanced and highly successful space programs in the United States (24 satellites flown of which nine were launched in a single year–a U.S. record). Accomplishments include design of ground system instrumentation of Titan I and II, design of telecommunications for the OV4-3 satellite, design and management of the telemetry and total electronics of the Viking Mars Lander, the first space craft to operate on the surface of Mars. (Fall 2006 newsletter) Rex Sjostrom received the 2004 College Honor Alumnus Award from the Alumni Association at CSU. (Spring 2004 newsletter)

Charles Brown, B.S. 1954 Civil, is semi-retired in Colorado Springs, and enjoying his consulting work. (Fall 2005 newsletter)

An honorary degree was awarded at Spring Commencement 2003 to Walter Scott, B.S. 1954 Civil Engineering. (Spring 2003 newsletter)

Ray Chamberlain, Ph.D. 1955 Civil, was awarded the ACEC/CO George Washington Award on April 29, 2005. The award is given to a member for outstanding service to the community, the progress of Colorado, and the advancement of the public image of consulting engineering as a profession. Ray received the first Ph.D. ever awarded by CSU. He was a member of the CSU staff for 24 years. For more than ten of those years he was the President of CSU. He served a term in the role of Chairman, Board of Trustees for the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Dr. Chamberlain has been awarded two honorary doctorates and he is currently teaching a course at CSU, “Transportation: Its Organization and Future. Chamberlain is Vice-President of Parsons Brinckerhoff, a worldwide engineering consulting firm in transportation and power. (Fall 2003, 2004, 2005 newsletter)

Rollie Moore, B.S. 1955 Civil, is the new president of the Family Service Association of Redlands, California. Moore has been a volunteer for the organization for eight years. The Family Service Association’s mission is to alleviate poverty, encourage self-sufficiency, and promote the dignity of all people. For 30 years, Moore served in the U.S. Air Force as a fighter pilot, the wing commander for the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing, and then chief of flight safety at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino. He retired in 1986.

Ben McCall, B.S. 1956 Civil, lives in Redondo Beach, California. Prior to his retirement, McCall had a long career in the aeronautics industry and worked on the development of the C-17. (Fall 2006 newsletter)

A January 16, 2003 article appeared in the Rocky Mountain News about the late Phillip McOllough, B.S. 1956 Civil Engineering. He was an engineer for the Colorado Highway Department for 35 years and worked on Interstates 25 and 70. Mr. McOllough was the principal engineer on the Eisenhower and Johnson Memorial tunnels. At its peak, 1,140 people were working around the clock six days a week on the projects. (Fall 2003 newsletter)

John Andrews, B.S. 1957 Agricultural Engineering, B.S. 1960 Civil, is a principal with the Larkin Group in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (Fall 2006 newsletter)

John Allen Cape, B.S. 1957 Civil, passed away November 25th. John worked with the California State Water Project prior to attending McGeorge School of Law. He retired as Assistant Chief Counsel for DWR in 1987. (Spring 2007 newsletter)

Stanley A. Feingold, B.S. 1957 Civil Engineering, now enjoys life as a farmer, after 20 plus years as a civil engineer and over 30 years as an attorney. (Spring 2005 newsletter)

Robert Longenbaugh, B.S. 1957, M.S. 1962 Civil Engineering, served on the staff in the civil engineering department from 1961 through 1980 and as assistant state engineer in the Office of the State Engineer from 1981 to 1991. Now retired, he lives in Lakewood, CO, with his wife, Eulalia. He grew up on an irrigated farm near Cortez, CO and his interest in Agricultural Engineering led him to Colorado State where in 1960 he began working in the groundwater hydrology field. Most of his research while at Colorado State dealt with applied problems such as conjunctive use of ground and surface water, groundwater modeling, and artificial recharge demonstration projects.

Although retired, Longenbaugh remains a steward of soil and water. “I’ve devoted a lot of my time to protection of our groundwater,” he says. “It’s a real challenge to make sure we have enough water for the people of Colorado. We need to ensure that the citizenry, legislature and water administrators understand groundwater so they can make good decisions for our future.” (Spring 2008 newsletter)

H.S. Negabhushanaiah, M.S. 1958, Ph.D. 1962 Civil, is retired but writing a series of engineering books. He had a distinguished career as an educator in India, serving as professor and head of the department at Regional Engineering College Rourkela, and coordinator of the Water Research Center at the National Institute of Engineering, Mysore. (Fall 2006 newsletter)

Dr. Henry Liu, M.S. 1963, Ph.D. 1966 Civil Engineering, has published a book, Pipeline Engineering: Fundamentals for the Water and Wastewater Maintenance Operator. Following 35 years of teaching and research at University of Missouri-Columbia, he is Professor Emeritus and serves as president of Freight Pipeline Company. (Spring 2004 newsletter)

Dale Heerman, M.S. 1964 and Ph.D. 1968 Agricultural Engineering, was inducted into the Biological Systems Engineering Hall of Fame at the University of Nebraska where he received his bachelor’s degree. Heerman was cited for his outstanding contributions in center pivot irrigation systems. His work was incorporated into the USDA NRCS’s national toolbox, and both U.S. and International Standards. On May 3, 2005, Heerman retired after more than 41 years of Federal service, 38 of those with the USDA-ARS in Fort Collins. He joined ARS in August 1968 and became Research Leader of the Water Management Unit in 1981. (Fall 2006 newsletter)

Archie Lind, B.S. 1964 Civil, is the vice president of aviation in URS Corporation’s Denver Tech Center Office.

Darell Zimbelman, B.S. 1964 and M.S. 1966 Civil, has spent most of his career managing water in the familiar landscape of northern Colorado. At Colorado State, Zimbleman jokes that he might have been an electrical engineer were it not for a vacancy on the civil engineering intramural football team that convinced him to change his major. Upon graduation, Zimbelman served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, where he was awarded both the Army Commendation Medal for Achievement and the Bronze Star. After his time in the army, he worked on a variety of water management issues in the United States and around the world, and in 1981, he obtained a Ph.D. in industrial and management engineering from Arizona State University. In 1983, he began his long and notable career with the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District (NCWCD), a public agency that provides water for agricultural, municipal, domestic, and industrial uses in a 1.6 million acre area in northeastern Colorado.

Highlights of Zimbelman’s twenty-three year career with NCWCD include refinancing of the D bonds for the Windy Gap project in 1986, overseeing the design and construction of the nearly 100 miles of pipeline that make up the Southern Water Supply Project, and acting as project manager for the construction of the District’s new 35-acre office complex. (Spring 2007 newsletter)

Nani Bhowmik, M.S. 1965, Ph.D. 1968 Civil, has been recognized as a Diplomat of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers at the ASCE for his lifelong contributions in water resources, river mechanics, sediment transport, and other related fields. He was awarded this recognition at the annual meeting of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute of ASCE in Anchorage, Alaska held in May, 2005. Dr. Bhowmik presently holds the position of principal scientist emeritus at the Illinois State Water Survey at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

James E. Caffey, Ph.D. 1965, retired from the City of Arlington, Texas, in May 2001 and has reopened his consulting business in that city. (2002 newsletter)

Tom Taylor, B.S. 1965 Civil, is vice president of Lunar Transportation Systems, Inc. (LTS) in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

At a workshop entitled "Preparing for the Environmental, Political, Cultural, Economic and Other Implications of Energy Development in Indian Country," Bill Lorah, M.S. 1966 Civil, spoke on the boom and bust of oil shale development in Colorado. Lorah is a senior consultant at WWE’s office in Glenwood Springs. Lorah is currently working on water rights work for planned development in Granby. (Fall 2006 newsletter)

In 2002, the College of Engineering awarded David McWhorter, M.S. 1966 Civil Engineering, Ph.D. 1971 Agricultural Engineering, the Engineering Honor Alumnus Award. During his 30-plus years at Colorado State, Dr. McWhorter served as adviser for M.S. and Ph.D. students and served his department through teaching, administration, and committee work. He is a world-renowned expert in contaminant transport in soil and groundwater, with a patent on disposal of spent oil shale and other materials. (2002 newsletter)

The civil engineering department has a long history of international involvement, and a tradition of raising the standard of living in developing countries by creating technical universities or providing engineering solutions. The department is proud of the many alumni and faculty who have engineered global solutions. One of these distinguished alumni recently visited Colorado State and shared his experiences. During his 28-year career with the World Bank, Dr. Daud Ahmad (M.S. 1967 and Ph.D. 1970 Civil) circled the world many times on assignments in the Caribbean, East Africa, South Korea and China. Dr. Ahmad retired from the World Bank in 2000 and has been doing consulting work overseas ever since.

He is Technical Auditor for the Roads Maintenance Program for the government of Laos, and was a member of the government’s advisory group overseeing the new development plan in Afghanistan in 2003-2004. Dr. Ahmad has had a satisfying and successful career, and credits Colorado State for his ability to move from water resources to transport operations and urban development, and from basic engineering into management of global-scale projects. “You look back, and what you learn in an institution is the capacity to cope with the challenges in life. And I think that’s what I learned from CSU. (Spring 2005 newsletter)

Trevor Dickinson, Ph.D. 1967 Civil, is Professor Emeritus, Water Resources Engineering, at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.

The 2002 Stockholm Water Prize was given to Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe, Ph.D. 1967 Civil Engineering. (Spring 2003 newsletter)

Accolades go to Harold “Hal” Simpson, B.S. 1967, M.S. 1969 Civil, who received the General Palmer Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Colorado. (Fall 2007 newsletter)

In January, Professor Tissa Illangasekare, Ph.D. 1968 Civil, of the Colorado School of Mines, was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for 2006. He was among 449 members selected for their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. AAAS is considered the world’s largest federation of scientists. (Spring 2007 newsletter)

Ben Urbonas, M.S. 1968 Civil, announced his retirement from Denver’s Urban Drainage and Flood Control District in March of this year. Ben worked at the district for approximately 30 years. He is still very active with his non-profit Urban Watersheds Research Institute (UWRI). In fact, Ben states “I’m busier than ever now that I’ve retired!” (Spring 2008 newsletter)

Jay Patel, M.S. 1968 Civil Engineering, worked in the private sector arena for over 12 years after graduation in Ventura county, specializing in land development. In 1976 he started taking MBA classes during the economic downturn. He completed his course work in ’79, his dissertation in ’87, and recieved his MPA in ’88 from CSUN. Recently, he joined the City of Agoura Hills and says he is getting close to the retirement stage. He and his wife, Pushpa, reside in Ventura County in a small town along highway 101 between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Jay has two children, daughter, Neeta, and son, Rajan.

Dr. James van Hoften, M.S. 1968, Ph.D. 1976 Civil Engineering, has been elected an AIAA Fellow. Selection of Fellows is limited to those who have distinguished themselves in the field of aerospace and who show strong potential for leadership. Dr. van Hoften is a senior vice president and general manager of global aviation for the Bechtel Group. Van Hoften joined Bechtel in 1986 from NASA, where in 1984, he became the first civil engineer to fly on the space shuttle.

R.D. (Bob) von Bernuth, B.S. 1968 Agricultural Engineering, is the director of the School of Planning, Design, and Construction at Michigan State University.

Phil Burgi, M.S. 1969 Civil Engineering, penned an article in the Summer 2004 issue of EWRI Currents. The article, “Is This What Retirement Looks Like?,” chronicled his trip to the Ecuadorian jungle working with a volunteer team on a clean water project and then being flown to a jungle base hospital after a fall left him with several breaks to his right femur. (Spring 2005 newsletter)

Robert H. Janowski, B.S. 1969, M.S. 1970 Civil Engineering, is the Chief Programme Officer of the London Underground. He is responsible for ₤153 million in construction per month and oversees contractors. (Fall 2003 newsletter)

Baum K. Lee, M.S. 1969, Ph.D. 1973 Civil Engineering, received the 2002 Hans Albert Einstein Award for his worldwide reputation and outstanding accomplishments as a practitioner in the field of sedimentation engineering. (Spring 2003 newsletter)

Jaime Saldarriaga, Ph.D. 1969 Civil Engineering, is retiring from consulting in water and energy utilities regulation in Columbia. He visited CSU and the Department in the fall while visiting family in Colorado. (Spring 2004 newsletter)

Bob Williams, B.S. 1969 Civil, has started a consulting firm, Williams Engineering LLC, in Gunnison, Colorado. (Fall 2006 newsletter)