MARSCHALL Rear Adm. Albert R. “Mike” Marschall, third commander of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command and an industry and government construction executive, died on Nov. 18 in Alexandria, Va. He was 87. A Naval Academy graduate, he was NAVFAC commander and chief of civil engineers from 1973 until he retired in 1977 after 36 years in the Navy. Marschall also was a vice president at George Hyman Construction Co., Washington, D.C., and a commissioner of the U.S. General Services Administration’s Public Building Service. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and was a national president of the Society
President George W. Bush has appointed C.W. (Bill) Ruth to serve as United States Commissioner of the International Boundary and Water Commission. Ruth, a 25-year-veteran of the agency who retired in 1998, was sworn in and assumed his duties on Nov. 24. The post had been left vacant with the death of the previous commissioner and his Mexican counterpart in a plane crash two months ago. International Boundary and Water Commission deals transboundary issues along the U.S.-Mexico border that include flood control, sanitation, boundary demarcation and mapping. It traces its history back to 1889 although its current incarnation was established
Amtrak has named the head of the Federal Railroad Administration, Joseph H. Boardman, to be the company's president and CEO, on a one-year appointment. The passenger railroad said that Boardman, who had been FRA Administrator since 2005, began his new job on Nov. 26. Board Chairman Donna McLean said the company will undertake a search for a permanent CEO. Boardman could be a candidate for the permanent CEO post, says Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black. At FRA, Boardman was the U.S. Dept. of Transportation's designee on Amtrak's board. Before coming to the rail agency, he was commissioner of the New York
George W. Housner, an earthquake engineering pioneer, died on Nov. 10 of natural causes in Pasadena, Calif. He was 97. Housner, the Braun professor emeritus of engineering at California Technology Institute (Caltech) in Long Beach, was responsible for developing the most complete mathematical system to analyze effects of ground shaking on structures. HOUSNER Engineers previously only considered the quake force pushing upon a building. Housner realized that an earthquake isn’t static but rather sets off vibrations throughout the entire structure that could bring it down. His mathematical framework helped to better understand those vibrations and led to the implementation of
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