2003 Honorary Members

David P. Billington  

avid P. Billington is the Gordon Y. S. Wu Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ.

After graduating from Princeton in 1950, Billington spent 2 years in Belgium on a Fulbright Fellowship, much of which was spent studying with Gustave Magnel. From 1952 to 1960, he designed works in reinforced and prestressed concrete for Roberts and Schaefer Co. In 1960, Billington joined the faculty at Princeton, became a professor in 1964, and published his first book, Thin Shell Concrete Structures, in 1965. He continued research on thin shells and, for many years, was a consultant to Research-Cottrell Co. for the design of high natural draft cooling towers.

In 1974, he introduced a course at Princeton, “Structures and the Urban Environment,” which over the past 30 years has been the most popular course in the School of Engineering & Applied Science. Central to the course is the concrete designing of Robert Maillart, on whom Billington has written three books. The course deals with structural engineering as an art form parallel to, but independent of, architecture. This led to The Tower and the Bridge, and six exhibitions in the Princeton University Art Museum. In 1985, he introduced the course “Engineering in the Modern World” for first-year engineering students. This course is open to all students at the university. One-fifth of all Princeton undergraduates have taken one of these introductory engineering courses. In 1999, he and a colleague introduced a third course, “Rivers and the Regional Environment,” which combines concrete and earth dams with hydraulics and hydrology. All three of these courses are based on new scholarship and are part of the Princeton curriculum.

Billington was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1986 and became a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1998. In 1999, he became an Honorary Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and the Engineering News Record named him one of the top 125 persons in civil engineering during the past 125 years. Awards include the Usher Award for Best Scholarly Work, Technology & Culture, 1995; the George Winter Award, ASCE, 1992, and the History and Heritage Award, ASCE, 1986; and the Dexter Award for outstanding book in the History of Technology, 1979. He has authored numerous books and over 160 journal publications.

He is a member of ACI Committee 120, History of Concrete, and has been a member of Joint ACI-ASCE Committee 334, Concrete Shell Design and Construction, since its inception and served as Chair from 1973 to 1978.

Billington received his BSE from Princeton University in 1950. He has honorary degrees from Union College, Grinnell College, and Notre Dame University.

W. Gene Corley  

Gene Corley is Senior Vice President of Construction Technology Laboratories, Inc., in Skokie, IL. He serves as managing agent for professional and structural engineering and leads structural evaluation projects related to industrial, transportation and parking facilities, bridges and buildings. His experience includes evaluation of earthquake and blast-damaged buildings and bridges; investigation of distress in prestressed concrete structures; repair of parking garages damaged by corrosion; evaluation and repair of high-rise buildings, stadiums, silos and bridges; and the design and construction of repairs for prestressed and conventionally reinforced, precast and cast-in-place concrete, structural steel facilities, and foundations.

In 1995, Corley was selected by ASCE to lead a Building Performance Assessment Team investigating the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. In September 2001, he was selected to head the teams to study building performance of New York’s World Trade Center after the 9-11 attack, and participated in the study on the Pentagon.

He has authored more than 170 technical papers and books and frequently lectures to technical and nontechnical groups on the subjects of prevention of failures, effects of earthquakes, and design and repair of structures. He regularly presents training courses on reinforced concrete design and teaches the seismic design portion of a refresher course to candidates for the Illinois Structural Engineering License examination.

Corley is an ACI Fellow and a current member of the International Committee (IC), the International Relations Committee, ACI Committees 318, Structural Concrete Building Code (Chair for 6 years when the committee was developing the 1995 Building Code); 341, Earthquake-Resistant Concrete Bridges; and Joint ACI-ASCE Committee 343, Concrete Bridge Design. He also serves on several other national and international committees that prepare recommendations for structural design and for design of earthquake-resistant buildings and bridges. Awards include ACI’s Wason Medal for Materials Research, the ACI Henry C. Turner Medal, and the ACI Alfred E. Lindau Award, as well as 16 national awards, including election to the National Academy of Engineering and the Best Structural Publication Award from NCSEA.

Corley received his BS in civil engineering, and his MS and PhD in structural engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1958, 1960, and 1961, respectively. He is a licensed structural engineer in the state of Illinois; a licensed professional engineer in Illinois and New York; a registered civil engineer in California and Hawaii; a registered professional engineer in Alabama, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington; and a chartered structural engineer in the UK.

Francis J. Principe  

rancis J. Principe currently serves as Chair of Queens Community Board No. 5, a local branch of the New York City government, a position he has held for the past 7 years. He is also currently pursuing the establishment of a Business Improvement District in the West Maspeth Industrial Area in Queens, NY, of which he is also Chair.

Principe was President and Founder of Principe-Danna, a ready-mix concrete company formed in 1946, in New York City, which for over 50 years supplied many of the large projects throughout the city. Among his other distinctions, he was the first ready-mix producer to serve as President of the New York Concrete Industry Board.

In 1979, Principe was honored with the ACI Henry L. Kennedy Award for outstanding technical and administrative service in establishing and advancing the goals of the American Concrete Institute. A Fellow of ACI and past member of the Board of Direction, he was also an active member of ACI Committees 214, Evaluation of Results of Tests Used to Determine the Strength of Concrete, and 301, Specifications for Concrete. He has been a speaker at many professional groups and seminar meetings, has authored several papers, and has traveled extensively as a lecturer with his “Doggie Show” on quality concrete.

Principe is a graduate of Cornell University, School of Civil Engineering, Class of 1931. He celebrated his 93rd birthday on Dec. 5, 2002.

Dean E. Stephan  

ean E. Stephan retired in 1997 as Partner, Director, and President of Pankow Operating, Inc. During his tenure at Pankow, annual volume grew from $25-$35 million to $600-$650 million with the company pioneering the design/build project delivery method in commercial structures. The scope of the company’s commercial building operations spans the nation from the East Coast to Hawaii.

He began his career in Officer Candidate School and spent 5 years in the Navy Civil Engineering Corps, during which time he spent 2 years in Public Works at Lakehurst, NJ, and 3 years as Director of Design and Engineering, Naval Facilities, Naples, Italy. He then spent 6 years at the Guy F. Atkinson Co. working in the field on projects in California and Texas with responsibilities ranging from office engineer to superintendent.

A Fellow of ACI, Stephan is also a member of ACI’s TAC Technology Transfer Committee (TTTC), and is a Past President of ACI (1994). He is also a past member of the ACI Board of Direction, past Chair of the Concrete Research and Education Foundation (ConREF), and a past Chair of TAC, ACI Committee 117, Tolerances, and the Standards Board. He is a past member of ACI Committees 318, Structural Concrete Building Code, and the Construction Liaison Committee (CLC), and the International Standards Organization. He has received the ACI Roger H. Corbetta Concrete Constructor Award, 2001; the ACI Delmar L. Bloem Award for Distinguished Service, 1992; and the ACI Henry L. Kennedy Award, 1992. Additional honors and awards include membership in the National Academy of Engineering, Class of 2000; Distinguished Alumnus, Stanford University, 1994; and the Civil Engineering Research Foundation’s Henry L. Michel Award, 2000, for significant innovation in concrete construction. He has authored many papers and developed the new seismic-resistant precast concrete moment-resistant frame.

Stephan received a BA in business administration from Claremont McKenna College and a BSCE in civil engineering from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, in 1961.

Augusto Carlos Vasconcelos  

ugusto Carlos Vasconcelos is a Consulting Engineer and a retired professor of prestressed concrete construction, Mackenzie University, São Paulo, Brazil.

He is a member of ACI Committee 120, History of Concrete, and he has published eight books about concrete and structures of nature, as well as 130 technical papers from 1948 to 2002. His awards include Prize Emilio Baumgart, IBRACON, 1984, for outstanding work in structural engineering; “the best monography of the year,” Instituto de Engenharia (São Paulo); and “Engineer of the Year 1993.” He is also founder of the first prestressed precast plant in Brazil for pretensioned elements (PROTENDIT 1957).

Vasconcelos received his civil engineering degree from the Polytechnical School of São Paulo University in 1948 and his PhD (Dr.Ing.) from Technische Hochschule München in 1955.