Ralph B. Peck, 1912 - 2008

February 18, 2008, Ralph Brazelton Peck died at the age of 95. Dr. Peck was Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and one of the last living colleagues of Dr. Karl Terzaghi, the founder and guiding spirit of modern soil mechanics. These men, along with other prominent names in the profession, such as Casagrande, transformed soil mechanics and foundation engineering from what was, for the most part, an art, into a science based on reason, theory and judgement thereby essentially creating the science of geomechanics, and opening the door to punks like me who loved to play in the dirt and decided to make a living out of it.

Professor Peck wrote, among many other publications, two landmark texts that have defined our profession. We read Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice (Terzaghi and Peck) and studied Foundation Engineering (Peck, Hanson, and Thornburn) in school, and my trusty old copy of Foundation Engineering still resides at my desk and remains one of my principal references.

Professor Peck alway emphasized the value of engineering judgement in practice, and I cannot recount here all of the case histories, papers, and text references that I have read and studied that have been credited to Professor Peck, but suffice it to say that his works remain some of the most highly respected writings in the sciences of soil mechanics and foundation engineering.

I had the honor of meeting Professor Peck on one occasion, when he was the Keynote Speaker at our local Ohio River Valley Soil Seminar (ORVSS) He was advanced in years, but the respect and admiration of the attendees was evident. Everyone brought their copy of Foundation Engineering (except for me - I forgot mine) for his autograph, and I found it entertaining that he would only sign the copies that looked as if they had been well-used.

Dr. Peck worked on such projects as the Chicago subways, the World Trade Center, and the post-failure study of Teton Dam, and has probably contributed in some form to virtually all of the engineering landmarks of modern times.

So in summation, the passage of Professor Peck represents the end of the beginning. Soil mechanics and foundation engineering has become the science and profession that it is principally in part due to the contributions of such giants as Ralph Peck.

Professor Peck, rest in peace, you may have never realized the influence your contributions had on the lives so many.

The Daytona 500!

I've said here before that there's an old saying something to the effect that "you can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy" Today was another example of this. Today marked the 2008 running of the Daytona 500. Yeh, it's stock car racing at its finest. The superbowl of motorsports. This year, a kindred spirit won the event. Ryan Newman, driver of the #12 Dodge, won the race in a nail-biter exciting finish. Ryan Newman is an engineer and a Purdue alum, and I am an engineer and a former Purdue student, so we are sympatico! Ryan celebrated with a cool smoky burnout after his victory . . .



You may be thinking that NASCAR is not sophisticated or redneck, but in my mind, that is just fine. We had a great time with our friends at my brother's during his annual Daytona 500 party, and we are looking forward to another fun year of auto racing. So while we are having fun with everything else (playing Emma, listening to music, building models, reading, etc.) you can bet that there will be a NASCAR race on the TV in the background.

While we're on the subject, I've been trying to decide who I should pull for in the Sprint Cup series this year. You see, I have a reputation of pulling for the underdog, and each year the guy I've pulled for has always lost his ride. Well, this year, I've decided to pitch my spirit behind a new driver, and there's always hope that I'll change my record. So Clint Bowyer, in the No. 07 Jack Daniels Chevrolet, get that championship in '08.




Peace from the Hive

Some Clarification at the Hive

Greetings to all the faithful visitors to the Hive during our long dormant period. Contrary to theory, we HAVE NOT suffered Colony Collapse Disorder, rather just a little break from posting. So I hope all visitors hereto have been well since my last post.

Which brings me to the topic at hand. My last post referenced the book of Parilipomenon from the Old Testament. Several visitors were inquisitive of this reference, so I thought a bit of explanation was in order.

My Bible (Given to me by my wife-to-be for my birthday in 1997) is the Douay-Rheims Version of the Catholic Bible. The significance of this designation is that this version of the Bible was translated into English from the Latin Vulgate Bible, translated by St. Jerome in the 1st century A.D. from the original languages (Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic). As such, in my mind (and that of many scholars), it represents the most faithful English translation of the Bible. This translation is considered a faithful word-for-word translation of the original manuscripts, many of which have been lost to history. By Approbation of His Eminence James Cardinal Gibbons this book is an approved version of the Catholic Bible.

As such, there are some differences between this version and modern versions of the Bible. The books of Paralipomenon are an example. In the modern Catholic Bible, these books are more recognizably referred (I think) to as the books of Kings (1 and 2) I have not done a cross-reference to verify this. Many of the names of the books in the Douay-Rhiems version are different from more modern translations, and I won't bore you with all of those now, but rather I'll save that for future posts.

Until then, thanks for keeping faith in the Hive. We're still here, we just get a little lazy about posting every once in a while.

Until next time, Cheerio!!

Steven's Neatest Hive