Dr Allen George Davis, DSc,
PhD, PE: 1938-2004
Dr Allen Davis was a fine, technically outstanding and
innovatory leader in the international community of Civil Engineering
geotechnics and NDT. Allen was born in Poonah, India, raised in Surrey and proceeded to study
as an undergraduate at the University
of Birmingham, where he
won half blues for light heavyweight boxing and squash. Allen graduated BSc, 1959, in Geology, MSc,
1963, in Foundation Engineering, PhD, 1966, in Soil Mechanics, and DSc, 1980,
in Transportation & Environmental Planning from the
University
of Birmingham in England.
On graduating in 1959, Allen Davis worked as a diamond
prospector for De Beers Consolidated, in South and Central
Africa. On his return to the UK,
he worked as a geotechnical engineer with Soil Mechanics Ltd.,
London,
England - before returning
to the University
of Birmingham as an MSc
course student in Foundation Engineering.
Allen’s early research under Prof Kolbuszewski focused on
the phase equilibrium and engineering properties of Keuper Marl, a much
misunderstood soft rock encountered widely during the construction of the
motorway network in the Midlands of England. At this early stage in his career
he demonstrated his vision, analysis and clarity of thought and writing that
proved to be the hallmark of his long career. His papers were all the richer in
detail as result of his fascination with hands on experience on site and in the
laboratory. At this early stage in his career he published seminal papers in
the Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and for CIRIA.
His two spells as Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer at the
University of
Birmingham were separated by a period of
three years in the late 1960’s when he worked with CEBTP, Paris in geotechnical
engineering. He undertook feasibility studies for highways and dams in Iraq, Iran,
Algeria and France, and 500 km of Highway in the Sudan, for the
World Bank. Thanks to his marriage to Andrée, in 1964, Allen was a fluent
French speaker and writer.
In 1974 the CEBTP set up Testconsult CEBTP Ltd in Warrington, UK
with Allen as technical director. At the same time he co-authored, with Dr
Scott Dunn, perhaps his most highly cited paper: “From Theory to Experience
with the Non destructive Vibration Testing of Piles” in the Proceedings of the
Institution of Civil Engineers. At the time, the piling industry was not ready
to have someone non-destructively test their piles! As usual, Dr Davis did not
shrink from the fierce debates that followed. He was at least ten years ahead
of his international competitors.
The French parent company, CEBTP, immediately recognised his
abilities and he was head hunted from the University
of Birmingham to
Paris where he led the geotechnical and NDT
research department and published a number of papers in French.. During these
middle five years of his career he headed the United Nations Mission (Habitat)
to Vietnam,
to establish geotechnical and building materials testing laboratories.
In the early 1980’s he returned to England, for
family reasons, and took up a post as technical director of Harrison and
Company, a site investigation company. Within a couple of years he was back
with the CEBTP group, working with Testconsult in Warrington. In 1987 he moved onwards again to
manage the CEBTP Hong Kong geotechnical and materials testing company
subsidiary. Always looking to innovate, he opened the American office of CEBTP (ESSI-Testconsult),
Asheville, North Carolina and started evaluating the stiffness of concrete road
slabs in Oklahoma and Arkansas in order to identify voiding and the
effectiveness of re-grouting – another technically and contractually
contentious area that he did not flinch from!
With the removal of tariff barriers in the EEC, CEBTP
withdrew from the USA
to focus on the now-open European market – but Allen was not going to give up
innovation! He continued to work in the USA
as a freelance until joining STS Consultants, Inc., in Deerfield,
IL as manager for NDT. Then followed a spell with Madsen, Kneppers &
Associates, Salt Lake City,
UT as manager for NDT. Finally,
at an age when people in the UK would be thinking of retirement, he returned to
the Chicago area in 1997 to take up a position as Senior Principal Engineer and
Manager of the NDT group (initially, just himself…!!) at CTL (Construction
Technology Laboratories, a former division of the Portland Cement Association),
in Skokie, IL, USA.
During this last period in Skokie,
IL he formed a particularly fruitful
professional relationship with Claus and Mariana Peteresen of Germann
Instruments, Copenhagen and
Chicago as their principal international technical
consultant: "a Titan". This led to the development of an
enthusiastically received concrete testing system based on the frequency
response function: “s’Mash”. With typical focus and doggedness, Allen had the
system accepted by ASNT, ASTM and latterly ACI 228. Indeed Allen chaired the
world’s most important, and prestigious, civil engineering NDT committee: ACI
228 NDT. At the point of his untimely and early death, Allen was a leader in
the revision of ACI 228.R2 “NDT of Concrete Structures”. His work will continue
to completion.
During his long career, Allen maintained productive
relationships with universities on both sides of the Atlantic: serving as
adjunct professor in the Department of Civil Engineering,
University
of Utah, and as an honorary professor
at École Spéciale des Travaux Publics in
Paris,
France.
Allen was past chairman of the American Concrete Institute
(ACI) Committee 228, "Nondestructive Testing of Concrete" and a
member of the RILEM Technical Committee on NDT, the Transportation Research
Board (TRB) and the Association of Drilled Shaft Contractors (ADSC). Allen was
disappointed his medical problems kept him from ACI meetings in San Francisco at the end
of October, and he had looked forward to attending them next Spring.
It goes without saying that Dr Davis was a frequent speaker
at professional conferences and symposia, and the author of more than 80
technical articles and publications in the fields of civil engineering and
building, transportation, and materials resources.
Allen was a tower of strength and mentor to his close
professional friends and colleagues: Bernie Hertlein, STS Consultants Inc,
Deerfield, IL, Aldo
Delahaza, Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Northbrook,
IL, his close colleague, Malcolm Lim, CTL,
Skokie, IL, Claus
Petersen, Germann Instruments, Copenhagen - plus
many other friends and compatriots on both sides of the Atlantic.
Allen Davis' sports interests focused on squash, in which he
won a county championship, and later, on racquetball in the USA. When
finally his orthopaedic surgeon lost patience with him - he had to choose
skiing over his beloved racquetball! No recollection of Allen is complete
without referring to his motoring history! As a young lecturer at the University of
Birmingham he drove a Mk 2 Jaguar
(essentially the E-type mechanicals) and in his final years drove a Cadillac
with all the bells and whistles!
Dr Allen George Davis, Senior Principal Engineer,
Nondestructive Testing Group, Construction Technology Laboratories,
Skokie, IL, USA died on Tuesday morning, 26th
October 2004, in Wheeling,
IL, USA
of pancreatic cancer, only recently diagnosed. He was 66 years old.
Allen will be sorely missed by his international friends and colleagues and is
survived by his wife, Andrée; two daughters, Catherine Davis of
Santa Fe, N.M., USA
and Corinne Davis of Culcheth, England;
and two granddaughters, Chloe and Isabelle.
We wish him well on his final journey!!!
………………………………………………………………………………………….
Contributed by Professor Mike Forde, FREng, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
m.forde@ed.ac.uk