Jack Janney

Jack Raymond Janney died on Monday, October 9, 2006 at his home in Lawrence, KS, after an extended illness. He was cremated. Mr. Janney was born June 17, 1924 in Alamosa, CO, the son of Charles L. and Agnes Desbro Janney. He attended Central High School in Pueblo, CO, and earned a Master's degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1950. Mr. Janney served in the U.S. Navy as a dive bomber pilot in World War II. Mr. Janney's graduate-school thesis on prestressed concrete became recognized as one of the first comprehensive, in-depth papers written on the subject in the U.S. In May of 1956, Janney started his own consulting engineering firm that would eventually become Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. (WJE) The company today employs more than 400 people in nineteen offices nationwide. During his 50-plus year career, Janney investigated upwards of 500 major structural collapses and more than 4,000 cases of structural distress. He investigated the Bailey's Crossroads Apartments collapse in Washington, DC, in 1973; the coolingtower scaffolding failure at the Willow Island Nuclear Plant in West Virginia in 1976; the Civic Center Coliseum collapse in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1978; and the Hyatt Regency Hotel walkway failure in Kansas City, in 1981. A recipient of many professional honors throughout his life, Janney received the Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award from the University of Colorado in 1985, the John F. Parmer Award from the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois in 2000, the Forensic Engineer of the Year Award from the Technical Council on Forensic Engineering in 1991, and Civil Engineer of the Year Award from the Illinois Section of ASCE in 1979. In 1991, Janney was also elevated to Honorary Member status in ASCE. Engineering News-Record (ENR) twice honored Janney with its "Those Who Made Marks" designation in 1967, for his fullscale testing (to failure) of several buildings at the New York World's Fair and in 1982 for innovations employed in the rehabilitation of Chicago's Soldier Field. In 1999, as part of their 125th anniversary, ENR selected Mr. Janney as one of its "125 Top People of the Past 125 Years" in the construction industry. Janney's early work in precast concrete also earned him recognition as one of 50 "Titans" of the precast/prestressed concrete industry at the 50th anniversary for PCI in 2004. Mr. Janney married Margaret MacKay of Pueblo in 1946. She survives, in Lawrence. Other survivors include sons, Charles of Longmont, CO, and Hugh of Lawrence, KS; granddaughters, Lauren of Santa Barbara, CA, and Hilary of Lawrence, KS. The family suggests memorials be made to the Jack R. Janney Engineering Scholarship Fund, to be set up by the family with the support of Wiss, Janney, Elstner and Associates.