May 25, 2011
Contacts:
Eric Dieterle, Engineering College Relations, 515.294.4881
Dave Gieseke, ISU Foundation Communications, 515.294.7263
Endowed Professorship to Honor Retired College of Engineering Faculty Member
Former students of Richard Handy, emeritus professor of civil engineering at Iowa State University, have come together to create a new endowed faculty position in honor of their mentor.
The Richard L. Handy Professorship has been established in the department of civil, construction and environmental engineering at Iowa State. Handy taught at Iowa State from 1956-91 and was named an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering in 1987.
“Without Dr. Handy’s help my research for my master’s degree at Iowa State could not have proceeded,” said Gerald Olson (’58 civil engineering) of Rio Verde, Ariz., and one of the donors to the Handy Professorship. “This was important because my research directly related to my first job after graduation and helped my technical background throughout my consulting career.”
Another alumni donor to the fund, Nathaniel Fox, a 1966 master’s and Ph.D. civil engineering graduate who currently lives in Las Vegas, Nev., echoed Olson’s comments.
“I have continued to cultivate the invention bug afforded me by Dick Handy during my graduate studies at Iowa State, until ultimately I was able to make a good and exciting living as an inventor of ground improvement methods,” Fox said. “Without Dick Handy’s gifted leadership and guidance, my career would have been far different and far less than it has been.”
Handy earned three degrees in geology and soil engineering from Iowa State including a bachelor’s degree in 1951, his master’s two years later, and a Ph.D. in 1956. Handy and his research team developed in-situ testing methods to measure soil and rock properties. The research led to the development of the Borehole Shear Test (BST) and is still manufactured and used worldwide. He holds 20 patents for testing devices for soil and rock for engineering purposes.
He is the founder of Handy Geotechnical Instruments, a company that manufactures innovative soil testing devices, the author of “The Day the House Fell,” and co-author, with M.G. Spangler, of the third and fifth editions of “Soil Engineering.” Recognized as a scientist, as well as an engineer, Handy is a Fellow in both the Geological Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
“This well-deserved recognition for yet another of Iowa State’s legendary geotechnical faculty well demonstrates the impact Dick Handy has had both on our department and his profession as a whole,” said James Alleman, chair of the department of civil, construction and environmental engineering. “Dick’s unflagging commitment to student success, let alone creative engineering insights, generated a passionate and even global following of avid and highly successful alumni. Even today Dick remains well committed to mentoring young and mid-career geotech faculty.”
The gift is part of Campaign Iowa State: With Pride and Purpose, the university’s $800 million fundraising effort. More than $850 million in gifts and future commitments for facilities and student, faculty and programmatic support have been made to Campaign Iowa State.