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J
JOHN FISHER KENNEDY
1 933-1 991
BY VITO A. VANONI AND NORMAN H. BROOKS
jOHN F. KENNEDY, Hunter Rouse Professor of Hydraulics, Uni-
versity of Iowa; director emeritus, Iowa Institute of Hydraulic
Research; and internationally known hydraulic engineer, died in
Iowa City on December 13,1991, at the age of fifty-seven years. He
was born in Farmington, New Mexico, on December 17, 1933.
Dr. Kennedy earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering
at the University of Notre Dame in 1955. He continued his
academic education in civil engineering at the California Insti-
tute of Technology (Caltech), where he obtained a master's
degree in 1956 and a Ph.D. degree in 1960.
The title of his thesis was "Stationary Waves and Antidunes in
Alluvial Channels." The results of this research, published in the
Journal of Fluid Mechanics (1963), clarified the phenomena of
antidunes en c! became a landmark study on the subject. This
served as his introduction to river sedimentation, the various
aspects of which became the subject of much of his research and
. .
engineering wor I.
Upon completion of his graduate studies at Caltech, Dr.
Kennedy immediately entered a long and productive career of
academic teaching, research, and professional engineering.
In 1960-1961 he remained at Caltech as a postdoctoral fellow
while he continued his work on sedimentation and started his
teaching career. In the fall of 1961 he joined the civil engineer-
ingfacultyofthe Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as
103
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
assistant professor of hydraulics, and in 1964 he was promoted to
associate professor. While at MIT, he taught hydraulics courses
and extendecl his research to include hydraulic resistance in
alluvial streams, transport of cohesive sediment, and density-
stratified flows.
In 1966 Dr. Kennedyjoined the University of Iowa as professor
and director of the prestigious Iowa Institute for Hydraulic
Research (IIHR), a position held previously by Dr. Hunter
Rouse. In 1981 he was named Carver Distinguished Professor.
He retired as director in August 1991 after a busy tenure of
twenty-five years.
Under Kennedy the program of IIHR continued to work on
basic hydraulics but at the same time undertook research on
engineering problems that were of interest to him. The engi-
neering problems often resulted from consulting projects that
Kennedy undertook at times, and were a welcome factor in
maintaining the fiscal viability of the laboratory.
John Kennedy's accomplishments were appreciated by his
associates as indicated by the University of Iowa President Hunter
R. Rawlings III, who sai(l, "During the distinguished twenty-f~ve-
year tenure as director of the Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Re-
search, Professor Kennedy contributed greatly to the institute's
position of world leadership. All of us will remember him not
only as a great engineer but as a warm and caring human being.
We will miss him."
~— _T' '~_ ~
While he was director of IIHR, Kennedy devoted much of his
time to research. During this time over two hundred technical
papers and reports were published in which he was the sole
author or a coauthor. The wide range of subjects of these papers
is an indication of the breadth of his interests in hyclraulics. A
portion of these papers dealt with aspects of alluvial streams,
including sediment transport, beclforms, and flow in bends and
meanders. These papers mostlywere fundamental in nature and
tended to advance the understanding of the complicated ero-
sion processes acting in rivers. His paper in the Annual Review of
Fluid Mechanics, 196S, entitled "Formation of Sediment Ripples,
Dunes and Antidunes" summarizes his work on bedforms and is
a reference work on the subject.
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JOHN FISHER KENNEDY
105
In addition to river sedimentation, Kennedy's many papers
dealt with mechanics of river ice, density currents, density
stratified flows, cooling towers and pumping systems for circulat-
ing cooling water for power plants, transport of cohesive sedi-
ment, and biographies of famous hydraulicians and history of
hydraulics.
Kennedy's interest in ice hydraulics dates from the time a
colleague called his attention to ripples that form uncler the ice
cover of rivers. He was intrigued immediatelywith the ice ripples
and ice problems and set out to obtain funding for studying
these problems. This led to the construction of a refrigerated
laboratory to house a flume to study ice problems. This labora-
tory was the first of its kind in the world. Kennedy was called on
to consult for the design of other similar facilities.
Kennecly and his Ph.D. student George D. Ashton developed
a theory that explained the formation of ice ripples, and which
was confirmed by experiments in the refrigerated laboratory.
The results of this work, for which they won the Hilgard Prize,
were publishecl in the ASCEJournal of the Hydraulics Division in
1972. Kennedy became a leading figure in ice hydraulics re-
search. He was called on frequently to lecture on ice engineering
and was instrumental in forming the International Association
for Hydraulic Research Section on Ice Research and Engineer-
ing. Togetherwith his Ph.D. students, he produced what remains
the leading theoretical model of ice jam equilibrium and other
papers on ice hydraulics.
As the program on ice engineering grew, Kennedy delegated
its coordination to his colleagues, several of whom went on to
develop careers in ice research.
Dr. Kennedy traveled widely and gave lectures at a number of
foreign laboratories. In September and October 1969 he visited
several scientific centers in the USSR under the auspices of the
Academy of Science of that country. In the academic year 1972-
1973 he was Fulbright Fellow and visiting professor at the
University of Karlsruhe, Germany. In the winter of 1976 he was
Erskine Fellow and visiting professor at the Canterbury Univer-
sity in Christchurch, New Zealand. In the winter of l9X1 he was
visiting consultant at the Central Power and Water Research
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
Station, Poona, India, and in the spring of 1985 he was guest
professor at Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule, Zurich,
Switzerland.
Dr. Kennedy was the recipient of many honors and awards
starting early in his career. The crowning award came when he
was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1973 at
the unusually young age of thirty-nine years. When he was still in
the lower academic ranks, he received several awards for his
publications in the journals of the American Society of Civil
Engineers. In 1980 he was elected president of the International
Association for Hydraulic Research and reelected for a second
term in 1982, and in 1989 he was elected honorary member of
the association. He was invited to give the American Society of
Civil Engineers' Hunter Rouse Hydraulics Lecture in 1981, and
in 1983 he was awarded the Iowa Governor's Medal.
Through his publications, travel, and other activities, he
became known widely and received a number of international
honors. In 1983 he was elected honorary member ofthe Hungar-
ian Hydrological Society. Two years later in 1985 he was named
honorary fellow of the Institute of Water Conservancy and
Hydroelectric Power Research, Beijing, China, and was ap-
pointecI honorary professor by the East China Technical Univer-
sit,v of Water Resources, Nanjing, China. In the next year, 1986,
he was named corresponding member of the Chinese Engineer-
ing Society.
Kennedy was an active member of the National Academy of
Engineering, International Association for Hydraulic Research
(honorary member and past president), American Society of
Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and
American Society of Engineering Education. He served on and
chaired numerous committees of these organizations.
Kennedy served on the following committees of the National
Research Council:
Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems, Com-
mittee on Natural Disasters, chairman 1983-1984, member
1980-1991,
Commission on Engineering en c! Technical Systems, Com-
mittee on ComputerAnalysis of River Sedimentation, chair-
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JOHN FISHER KENNEDY
107
man l9XO-1983,
Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems, Water
Technologies Board, 1982-1984,
Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems, Panel on
Niagara Ice Boom Investigations, 1983, and
Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems, Advisory
Committee for the International Decade of Hazard Reduc-
tion, 1987.
He served on the following national consulting boards:
Board of Consultants for the Sacramento River and Tributar-
ies, Bank Protection and Erosion Control Investigation,
1978-1991,
Board of Consultants for St. Lawrence Seaway Navigation
Extension Season, 1975-1979, and
Peer Review Group, Alden Research Laboratory Power Reac-
tor Containment Sump Studies, Department of Energy,
Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Sandia Corp.,1981-
1982.
In addition, he served on the following international consulting
boards:
At,
Team of Experts to Review Development of National Water
Plan for Saudi Arabia, 1982-1991,
Advisory Panel of International Experts for Three Gorges
Dam Project (China), 198~198S, and
International Commission of Experts to Review Leningrad
Storm Surge Barrier, Lenhydroenergospesstroy (USSR),
1990.
Through his activities in teaching, research, professional
societies, and international and national committees and con-
sulting boards, John F. ~ Jack) Kennedy had a major influence on
hydraulic engineering. He was an effective speaker, knowledge-
able of a broad range of technical subjects, and a sought after
leader. Engineers who have worked closely with him admired
him for his pleasant personality and his ability to grasp the salient
features of an engineering problem and to quickly conceive its
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
solutions.
Jack Kennedy was a very personable, articulate, friendly, and
caring person. He was devoted to his wife, Nancy, and their four
children. He will be missed.
The following poem included in the introduction to his
(loctoral thesis reflects his personality as well as his skill with
words:
SEDIMENT RESEARCH
Sand in my hair,
Sand in my teeth,
Sand overhead,
Sand underneath.
Plugging the pitot,
Abracling the pump,
Clogging the samplers,
Filling the sump.
This was my research
Exciting and grand.
Very rewarding
Despite all the sand!!
JFK 1 960
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
ice hydraulics
