Vernon H. Neubert

Vernon H. Neubert, 92, of Centre Hall, Pa., passed away on Tuesday, March 3, 2020, at his home.
Dr. Vernon Herbert Neubert was born Dec. 23, 1927, near Cabot, the son of Herbert and Anna Neubert.
He attended St. Luke's Parochial School and had the same teacher, Mr. O.J. Nicol, for all eight grades in the one-room school.
In Butler High School, he was class treasurer, editor in chief of the Magnet his senior year and a June 1945 commencement speaker. There were five (or seven) speakers with none designated as valedictorian or salutatorian. He was a member of the Golden City baseball team and captain of its basketball team.
Upon graduation from high school, he was awarded the Ritz scholarship, a state senatorial scholarship, a freshman scholarship to Thiel to study journalism and a freshman scholarship to Carnegie Tech to study engineering.
He chose to study engineering at Carnegie Tech, finished his bachelor's program in three calendar years and was chosen "Most Promising Senior Engineer" in 1948. He was a treasurer of Beta Theta Pi social fraternity and sang in the Carnegie Tech Glee Club. He was elected to Theta Tau, Tau Beta Pi, Phil Kappa Phi, Omicron Delta Kappa and Sigma Xi honorary societies. He was awarded one of five national Tau Beta Pi fellowships, which financed his study for a master's degree in civil engineering, completed at Carnegie Tech in 1949.
During his four years in high school, he worked part-time as a laborer, first at the Saxonburg Potteries and later at the ARMCO steel plant in Butler. He continued part-time at ARMCO after he started college, but during his junior and senior years at Carnegie Tech, he worked part-time as a steel construction engineer's helper, climbing with the structural iron workers to measure and document locations of existing rivet holes or lay out new connections on structural steel work with Pittsburgh Industrial Engineering Corp. at 49th and Butler streets.
From 1949 to 1950, he was employed full-time with PIE Corp.
In 1950, he married Lois Eileen Roudybush, who was a member of Butler High School Class of 1947. The draft for World War II ended just after Vernon became 18, but he joined the U.S. Army Reserve in Pittsburgh, and was called to duty in September 1950, shortly after his marriage. He served two years as an Army lieutenant during the Korean War, from 1950 to 1952.
From 1952 to 1954, he was a research engineer at ALCOA's research lab in New Kensington. He worked in equipment design and maintenance. He did a survey of the plant and laid out a true north line by shooting the North Star, and put two pins on the northerly line in the lawn in front of the main lab. During this time, he was elected to RESA, an industrial research version of Sigma Xi. He was also enrolled in the math department graduate program at Pitt and attended night classes for a year.
In 1954, he began full-time study as a graduate student at Yale University. He got help from the GI bill, from teaching part time at Yale, and by his wife working full-time as a nurse at Grace New Haven Hospital. He taught engineering drawing and basic mechanics to Yale undergraduates.
Vernon and his wife arranged their schedules so that one or the other would be home with their two young sons, Chris and Clay, who were born in 1951 and 1953, respectively. Vernon was awarded his doctor's degree in engineering from Yale in 1957.
From 1957 to 1962, Dr. Neubert was a structural dynamicist in the Applied Mechanics Department at Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics. He contributed to the development of computer programs to solve shock and vibration problems for nuclear submarines. He was named chief of structural mechanics (at the same organizational level as the chief naval architect) and became head of the applied mechanics section, supervising about 40 engineers and 30 technical aides.
In addition to doing shock and vibration analysis for submarines, his group carried out a stress analysis of the Unisphere, which was the theme center for the 1964 New York World's Fair, and he did an earthquake analysis for General Electric's atomic power plant in Hanford, Wash. During this time, he also served as an evening lecturer for the University of Connecticut graduate program in New London, Conn., teaching vibrations and theory of elasticity classes.
He was an elder and Sunday school teacher at the Lutheran Church in New London. Daughters Kathy, Wendy and Marlene were born in 1957, 1959 and 1961, respectively.
On Aug. 1, 1962, he was invited to join the faculty at Penn State as an associate professor in the department of engineering mechanics. He was promoted to full professor July 1, 1966, and was awarded tenure July 1, 1967. He carried out sponsored research for the U.S. Navy, NASA, the Defense Nuclear Agency, the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force. He received a special award from NASA for work relating to the measurement of stress waves produced from pyrotechnic devices, which are used on every launched spacecraft.
He became a member of three professional societies and later was elected a fellow of each society: the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Acoustical Society of America. He was chosen to be a member of the Shock and Vibration Committee of the Applied Mechanics Division of ASME and served as its chairman for one term.
Professor Neubert was known as a conscientious teacher and taught hundreds of engineering students in basic and advanced engineering courses, including dynamics, strength of materials, theory of vibrations, vibration laboratory, nonlinear and random vibrations and structural dynamics. He initiated new courses in Experimental Methods in Vibrations (E. Mch. 412 and 538), Nonlinear Vibrations (526), Random Vibrations (570) and Structural Dynamics (527). He supervised the research of 14 students who received their Doctor of Philosophy degrees and 16 students who were awarded Master of Science degrees under his guidance. He published more that 40 papers in technical journals and wrote two books, "Mechanical Impedance: Modeling/ Analysis of Structures" in hardback and "Theory of Vibrations" in notebook form, which served as references or texts for some of his classes.
He received a College of Engineering Outstanding Researcher Award. He was awarded two patents, one for a dynamic vibration absorber and the other for energy-absorbing shock mounts.
He was first (in the world) to solve for natural frequencies and mode shapes of a system as large as eight degrees of freedom (Doctoral Thesis, 1957). His thesis adviser, Dean Dana Young, thought this was true.
He organized PSU summer short courses on Normal Modes, Shock and Vibrations starting in 1964. Nationally known participants were White, Crandall, Newmark, Fung, Agbabian, O'Hara and Belsheim.
He received very high teaching ratings in E. Sc. 210 for example. (A 6+ average out of 7), taught three separate courses in one semester: E. Mch. 12, 522, and 527 besides traveling to a sponsored research conference.
He served on the Potter Township Planning Commission in Centre County for 11 years and was chairman his final year in 1995. He wrote the initial version of the Township Road Standards. He sang with the State College Choral Society and served a term as its treasurer. He was concerned with farm preservation and was president of the Citizens to Preserve Farms in Potter Township, which he helped to organize.
He was a Sunday school teacher, church council member and choir member for St. Luke Lutheran Church in Centre Hall.
His beloved wife and companion, Lois Eileen Neubert, passed away on July 4, 2016.
He was also preceded in death by three brothers, Edgar, Glenn and Arnold.
Lois and Vernon had five children, Chris V. Neubert of State College, Clay A. Neubert and his wife, Marsha, of Powell, Wyo., Kathy R. Odato and her husband, Gene, of Landisburg, Pa., Wendy C. Valot and her husband, Douglas, of Houston, Texas, and Marlene A. Curto and her husband, Antonio, of Coopersburg, Pa.
Vernon is also survived by seven grandchildren, Lucas Neubert and his wife, Jen Pazour, Blake Neubert, Meredith Graham and her husband, Andrew, Nicholas Odato, Ben Valot, Rachel Defoe and her husband, Jon, and Stefano Curto and his wife, Jenn; and four great-grandchildren, Clara Neubert, Felix Neubert, Rosalind Graham and Leah Defoe.
NEUBERT - Arrangements for Vernon H. Neubert, who died Tuesday, March 3, 2020, have been entrusted to Daughenbaugh Funeral Home, 228 S. Pennsylvania Ave., Centre Hall, Pa., and Kennedy Funeral Home in Kittanning.
Interment will be at Worthington Presbyterian Cemetery in Worthington.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Vernon's memory to the Willis Follstaedt Scholarship Fund, St. Luke Lutheran School, 330 Hannahstown Road, Cabot, PA 16023.
An online guest book can be signed or condolences can be given to the family available at www.daughenbaughfuneralhome.com.