Henry Petroski

1942 - 2023

Henry Petroski
February 6, 1942 - June 14, 2023
Durham, North Carolina - Engineer, writer, and long time Duke University professor Henry Petroski passed away on June 14 at the age of 81 at Duke University's Hock Family Pavilion.
Petroski was the Aleksandar S. Vesic Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering at Duke University, where for most of his four-decade career he also held an appointment as professor of History. He earned a BME degree from Manhattan College in 1963 and MS and PhD degrees in theoretical and applied mechanics from the University of Illinois at Urbana in 1965 and 1968.
In 1985, Petroski published his first book for the general reader, To Engineer is Human. As an extended essay on the nature of engineering, and why most engineering designs succeed but some fail, the book was later developed into a BBC television documentary, which Petroski wrote and presented in 1987.
Since 1991, Petroski wrote nearly two hundred engineering columns for the scientific honor society Sigma Xi's American Scientist magazine. From 2004 through 2012, he held a presidential appointment as a member of the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board.
Petroski held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and, as the National Humanities Center's first and only engineer-fellow, he wrote The Pencil, a book that explored the surprisingly complex origin and development of that simple object. He went on to write several other books focused on everyday objects and structures, from paper clips to supermarkets, most notably 1992's The Evolution of Useful Things.
Petroski's twenty books for the general reader and hundreds of articles, invited lectures, and talks around the world earned him six honorary degrees, the Washington Award from the Western Society of Engineers, the Ralph Coats Roe Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the History and Heritage Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Walter Harding Distinguished Achievement Award in Scholarship from the Thoreau Society.
He was a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, of the Institute of Engineers of Ireland and of Sigma Xi, and was a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He was an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.
Petroski resided in Durham and Arrowsic, Maine, where the Petroskis' summer retreat on the Kennebec River inspired his book, The House with Sixteen Handmade Doors. He is survived by his wife Catherine Petroski, his daughter Karen Petroski (TJ Bross) of St. Louis, his son Stephen Petroski (Laura) of Cary, and grandsons William Henry and Theodore James Petroski. No funeral is planned, in accordance with his wishes. Friends who would like to make a memorial gift are asked to contribute to the Duke Cancer Institute or their favorite charity.