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OCR for page 143
THOMAS CHRISTIAN KAVANAGH
1912-1978
BY ANTON TEDESKO
THOMAS C. KAVANAGH was born August 17, 1912, in New York
City and died May 23, 197S, in Florida. At the time of his death, he
was a partner in the consulting firm of Iffland-Kavanagh-
Waterbury, Engineers-Architects-Planners. He was a Founding
Member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and served
as its Treasurer for ten years, from 1964 to 1974.
Tom considered himself a consulting engineer and an educator.
He was a civil engineer, a renowned structural designer, and, long
before the term was invented, a systems engineer. He was also a
person of great vision, with superior technical ability, great op-
timism, energy and social consciousness, deeply involved in all
phases of his discipline, committed to engineering work, dedicated
to engineering causes, a leader in the technology of engineering,
and a strong symbol of the best in the profession.
Tom had become fluent in German and maintained a familiarity
with the contents of German technical publications. He never said
"no" when asked to do something for the profession. When others
failed to do what was required, Tom took over. When it was
necessary to criticize, he did so in a pleasant way and with a smile.
He started many young people on the route to professional work
and encouraged their making contributions through committee
work and publications.
He had a unique ability to bridge the gap between the academic
and the practitioner's viewpoints and was held in high regard by
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both sides. He could translate issues and considerations peculiar to
the building industry into terms understood by those on the
outside. When Tom explained why something was impractical,
people usually understood.
Tom understood the socioeconomic side of engineering the
positive and negative impacts of a proposed action and was able
to articulate it well. He was a patient listener, an effective adviser,
and a good mediator. His approach was soft and diplomatic. He
did not shirk difficult assignments and was equally at home among
his peers as he was among junior groups.
Tom was conscious of an engineer's duties and service to man-
kind; he was conscientious, thorough, inventive, with a drive for
improvements wherever he had any influence. He thought of civil
engineering as the basic civilian discipline (in contrast to military
engineering), the parent discipline from which spawned all the
other branches of engineering. Specialties such as ocean engineer-
ing, in which he was interested, were part of Tom's civil engineer's
world. This world Tom described as "encompassing that boundless
activity directed toward fulfillment of human needs through adap-
tation and control of the land-water-air environment a truly
tremendous scope."
Tom, starting at an early age, was pretty much on his own. What
he became was due to his drive, stamina, and intellect. A
scholarship enabled him to begin his studies in engineering and
allowed him to go to the Technological University of Berlin,
Germany. He earned the Bachelor of Science and Master of Civil
Engineering degrees from the City College of New York, a Master
of Business Administration degree M.B.A. in finance, and a science
doctorate from New York University (NYU). He became a structural
designer, working for engineering firms in New York and Pennsyl-
vania on railway and highway bridges, sanitary plants, industrial
structures, transmission towers, power plants, waterfront struc-
tures, floating docks, and refineries. He was an aircraft engineer in
World War II.
After several years as an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering
at New York University, Tom became a Professor at Pennsylvania
State University and, in 1948, Head of its Structures Department.
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In 1952 he moved back to New York University and became
Chairman of the Department of Civil Engineering. In 1953 Tom
started to spend one afternoon a week working with the consulting
firm of Praeger & Maguire, which had not been strong in the
structural field. It did not take too long until Tom joined this
organization as a full partner, with the firm's name changed to
Praeger-Kavanagh, and later to Praeger-Kavanagh-Waterbury.
However, Tom kept up his teaching activities as an Adjunct Profes-
sor at NYU until 1956 and at Columbia University thereafter.
During this period he was responsible for a number of outstanding
engineering projects, including the Arecibo (Puerto Rico) radio
telescope (the world's largest), the Hawkins Point Bridge, the
planning for the Caracas (Venezuela) subway system, and the Long
Island Sound bridge crossing. He also worked on the New York
City Building Code and on design manuals for the U.S. Army.
Following a merger in 1969 involving Tom's company and
another engineering firm, Tom joined Louis Berger International
Incorporated in 1975 and became a Vice-President, managing
large projects in Cyprus and Lagos. In 1976 he founded Iffland-
Kavanagh-Waterbury, a consulting firm undertaking projects simi-
lar to those carried out by the Praeger-Kavanagh firm.
The variety of Tom Kavanagh's activities is hard to envision.
Likely no other man involved in the work of dozens of committees,
commissions, councils, or boards has made as many personal con-
tributions on such a wide variety of subjects. He was a member of
twenty professional societies. In the course of twelve years he
served on twenty NAE committees. At one time or another he led
twenty professional working groups; only ten of the twenty groups
he headed as Chairman are listed here as examples: Committee on
Ocean Engineering of NAE (this name later was changed to Marine
Board), Finance Committee of NAE, Civil Engineering Peer Group
of the Committee on Membership of NAE, Metropolitan Section of
the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Research Commit-
tee of ASCE'S Structural Division, U.S. Council of the International
Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering, Committee on
Systems Engineering of the Consulting Engineers Council, Com-
mission on International Relations of the Engineers Joint Council,
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Ethical Practice Committee of the Consulting Engineers Council,
and Committee for Coordinated Construction Activity of the
Building Research Advisory Board of the National Research Coun-
cil (NRC ).
Tom headed program committees, technical sessions, nominat-
ing boards, university advisory boards, and accreditation and edu-
cational committees. As ASCE Director, he represented those
members who were not residents of the United States. He was a
founding member of ASCE'S Research Council for the Performance
of Structures and for years was most active in the Column Research
Council, later known as the Structural Stability Research Council.
For six years he served on the NRC'S Building Research Advisory
Board (one year as Vice-Chairman). In the 1960's he served in the
leadership of the Engineers Joint Council (as Senior Vice-President
in 1971-72~. A wide diversification of interests, a multidisciplinary
approach to engineering projects, as well as a strong feeling for
aesthetics, were his hallmark.
Tom Kavanagh was the author of over 100 technical publica-
tions. He received recognition and awards from numerous profes-
sional societies and agencies. These include: an Honorary En-
gineering Doctorate from Lehigh University; the Ernest E. How-
ard Award of ASCE for his Contributions to the Advancement of
Structural Engineering; the David Steinman Medal for Structural
Engineering from the City College of New York; the Gold Medal of
the Architectural League; and an Honorary Life Membership in
the New York Academy of Sciences.
During the 1970's he was most active in the Council on Tall
Buildings and Urban Habitat. As a charter member of the Coun-
cil's steering group, he touched everyone's thinking as he strongly
urged the "systems approach" and the need to recognize the
broader aspects of the impact of high-rise buildings. During one of
his last series of trips to Egypt (1974-75) for Tall Building Confer-
ences in Cairo, he was an important contributor and had meetings
with the Minister of Reconstruction.
O 0 1
. . ..
The engineering profession was Tom Kavanagh's whole life; he
had no interest in "hobbies." It is only natural that he was a driving
force among the twenty-five engineers, representing a broad spec-
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trum of the profession, who in 1964 created what became known as
the National Academy of Engineering. Tom was elected a Member
of the Council of the new Academy. He was very much concerned
that the quality of new members of the Academy be maintained at
the highest level. His interest in improving the mechanism of the
selection and election process continued when he himself served on
the Committee on Membership.
When NAE President Robert C. Seamans, fir., resigned that posi-
tion in 1974 to accept an appointment by the President of the
United States to an important Government position, Thomas
Kavanagh headed the search committee for a new President of the
Academy. When Courtland D. Perkins was named as a candidate,
Tom's committee was instrumental in persuading Dr. Perkins to
accept the nomination; his election to the presidency followed in
1975. Through this action Thomas C. Kavanagh left his final
imprint on the Academy.
Dr. Kavanagh was married to Kerstin E. Berglund and had three
children.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
structural engineering
