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Memorial Tributes
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING
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WILLIAM C. ACKERMANN
1913-1988
WRITTEN BY WILLIAM J. HALL,
W. HALL C. MAXWELL, AND GLENN E. STOUT
SUBMITTED BY WILLIAM ]. HALL
WILLIAM C. ACKERMANN, former chief of the Illinois State
Water Survey and emeritus professor of civil engineering at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, died of lung
cancer on June 9, 198S, in Urbana, Illinois, following several
months of declining health.
Bill Ackermann was born on October 7, 1913, in Sheboygan,
Wisconsin, a son of William and Frances E. Shermer
Ackermann. He married Margaret Adele Koepsell on May
6, 1942, in Sheboygan. He attended Lawrence College (now
Lawrence University) in Appleton, Wisconsin, before going
on to complete his undergraduate education at the University
of Wisconsin at Madison, from which he graduated in 1935
with a B.S. (honors) in civil engineering.
Upon graduating he spent a short time with Kimberly-
CIark Corporation in Neenah, Wisconsin, and then began
his professional career as a water resources engineer with
the Tennessee Valley Authority in Knoxville, Tennessee.
He worked in the Water Control Planning Department as a
river forecaster from 1935 to 1941, and then headed the
Hydrology Section from 1942 to 1954. In 1954 he moved to
the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research
Service in Beltsville, Maryland, where he headed the Watershed
Hydrology Section. Two years later he was appointed chief
of the Illinois State Water Survey. In 1958 he was given a
3
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
joint appointment as professor of civil engineering at the
University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. It was during
his years in Illinois that Professor Ackermann made his
most valuable contributions to the field of water resources.
In 1963 he accepted a one-year special assignment on
the White House staff in Washington, D.C. as technical
assistant in the Office of Science and Technology, Execu-
tive Office of the President, where he chaired the Committee
on Water Resources Research. He strongly advocated- the
establishment of water resources institutes in fifty states,
and this was enacted by Congress in 1964. He continued
to serve the Executive Office of the President in various
capacities from 1964 to 1984, and was vice-chairman of the
Acid Rain Peer Review Panel. He was proud of his service
in the White House and was seldom seen without the PT
109 tie clip given to him by President Kennedy.
In 1967 he directed the preparation of Illinois' first
comprehensive water plan. This guided water management
decisions in Illinois for twenty-three years until about 1980,
when he was asked to direct the preparation of a new plan.
He served as the executive director of the Illinois State
Water Plan for the state of Illinois' Division of Water Resources
until 1987.
Bill Ackermann was elected to the National Academy of
Engineering (NAE) in 1967 and served on the NAE Coun-
cil from 1972 to 1975. He was particularly known for his
willingness to serve and did so on many of the Academy's
advisory boards and committees including, starting in 1970,
his chairmanship of the Academy's Committee on Engineering
Aspects of Environmental Quality, and from 1980 to 1982,
the National Research Council (NRC) Water Resources
Research Review Committee that evaluated the U.S. water
resources program. In addition he was a member of the
Environmental Studies Board, ajoint committee of the National
Academy of Sciences-National Academy of Engineering. He
served on the Executive Committee and Commission of the
NRC Commission on Natural Resources from 1973 to 197S,
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WILLIAM C. ACKERMANN
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and was president of the U.S. National Committee for the
International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics.
His major consulting activities included consultation for
the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in 1970, the Upper
Mississippi River Basin Commission from 1979 to 1981, and
the Department of Commerce's Office of Sea Grant Programs
from 1978 to 1985.
Bill Ackermann was honored many times during his fifty-
year career. These honors include his membership in the
National Academy of Engineering, the Laureate Medal of
the Lincoln Academy of Illinois, the American Society of
Civil Engineers' Collingwood Prize, the American Geophysical
Union's Robert E. Horton Medal (cited for "expertise and
outstanding leadership in research, planning, and management
of water resources"), the Soviet Medal for Geophysics, the
American Water Works Association's Fuller Award, and the
American Water Resources Association's Icko Iben Award.
He was also twice awarded honorary doctor of science degrees:
one in 1970 from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois,
and a second in 1971 from Southern Illinois University in
Carbondale, Illinois. At the time of his death he was to be
the first recipient of the American Water Resources
Association's William C. Ackermann Award for Planning
and Management in Water Resources.
Besides his long service as chief of the Illinois State Wa-
ter Survey, other positions of leadership that he assumed
over the years included the presidency of the American
Geophysical Union (AGU) from 1966 to 196S, AGU's Section
of Hydrology from 1962 to 1964, the International Association
of Scientific Hydrology in 1971, the Committee on Water
Research of the International Council of Scientific Unions,
and vice-presidency of the International Union of Geodesy
and Geophysics. His leadership roles in the American Society
of Civil Engineers included chairmanship of the Hydrology
Committee in 1953, of the Hydraulics Division from 1966
to 1967, of the National Water Policy Committee from 1969
to 1970, and of the National Energy Policy Committee from
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
1973 to 1975. He was a member of the society's board of
direction from 1971 to 1974.
Bill Ackermann loved teaching, and when he retired from
the Illinois State Water Survey in 1979 he became fully
involved with education. In 1980 he was appointed adjunct
professor of civil engineering at the University of Illinois in
Urbana-Champaign, and in 1985, when he retired from that
position, was appointed emeritus professor.
Bill Ackermann's life of service was not confined to engi-
neering or scientific matters, nor was it solely at the state,
national, or international level. He was a member of the
First Presbyterian Church in Champaign, Illinois, where he
was a longtime elder. He was a member of the Champaign
Kiwanis Club.
He is survived by his wife, Margaret; his sons William C.
Ackermann of Champaign, Illinois, and Arthur i. Ackermann
of Kirkwood, Missouri; his daughter, Mrs. David (Nancy)
Price of Summerville, South Carolina; and seven grandchildren.
Those of us who were privileged to know Bill Ackermann
and to work closely with him during his years here in Illinois
fee] a great sense of loss at his passing. We miss his wise
counsel and advice, and his willing service whenever called
upon.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
state water
