Harvey Parker passes away aged 83
13 May 2020Dr Harvey Parker, one of the best-known and respected personalities in the global tunnelling fraternity, has died following a two-year battle with cancer. His career spanned 55 years during which he made significant contributions to education, theory and tunnelling practice. His work and achievements were ultimately recognised in 2018 by the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Underground Construction Association, and in 2019 by the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Tunnelling Association (ITA).
Harvey Parker graduated with a BSCE from what is now called Auburn University, Alabama in 1957. He gained his MS in civil engineering from Harvard in 1967. Having served as chief engineer on a US Navy destroyer, he went on to do pioneering work on steel-fibre shotcrete in 1972. He gained a PhD in civil engineering with a minor in geology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1976.
He was involved on numerous metro projects across the US, and many others, including the Mount Baker Ridge Tunnel, Seattle – the largest soft-earth tunnel in the world – and the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement, also in Seattle. He also chaired several organisations, including the US National Committee on Tunnelling Technology, the Underground Technology Research Council and the Underground Shotcrete Subcommittee of the American Concrete Institute. He was president of the ITA from 2004-2007. He leaves a wife, extended family and grandchildren.
Dr Harvey Weston Parker, 23 December 1936 – 5 May 2020
