Balbir Sandhu

My father, Robert Capen, an architect at Burns & McDonnell, would talk about this great man when I was growing up.

Bal was nicknamed professor by those of us who were younger engineers when we worked with him at Bibb Engineers. Bal was such a wealth of knowledge and a great guy. I will miss my walks with this wonderful man. I cherish the engineering books, papers references and knowledge he handed down as well as his example of almost never-ending positivity.

Very good person. We get to know each other at Burns and Mc Donnell. He will be missed at our meetings.
Enzo Restivo

He gave generously and touched many lives. He will be missed and remembered.

I was sad to read of the passing of my old friend. We met as fellow structural engineers while he worked at Black & Veatch. We had many common interests. We shared the same birthday (he was senior by 8 years) and one of my grandmothers was born in India. He and I would meet for lunches for Indian food at the local Korma Sutra cafe. Balbir was among the last of an engineering era that used slide rules and hand derived solutions as the computer age arrived. He wrote many technical articles for engineers, one of which I very often used to determine the effective buckling length of variable cross section columns. I was greatly flattered when he cited me as a reference in one of his last written articles on lateral earth pressures against walls. He was always upbeat about learning new things. The old phrase "a gentleman and a scholar" would definitely apply to Balbir because that is what he truly was. To me, he was surely one of a kind. I shall never forget him.