Orange County Branch Newsletter

June 2013

President's Message

President's Message - Our Branch

By Tapas Dutta, P.E.



For several months I have been focusing on ASCE on a national Society level and have been discussing national issues.  This month I have decided stick closer to home and focus on our Branch.

The Orange County Branch (OCB) was formed in 1953 and currently has about 2,500 members.  We are the fourth largest Branch after the Metropolitan Los Angeles Branch (MLAB), Golden Gate Branch and the Houston Branch. We are part of a global community of Civil Engineers:  ASCE has about 140,000 members worldwide.  Locally, we are one of the seven branches that constitute the Los Angeles Section.  The Los Angeles Section is one of four sections that form Region 9.  The unique aspect of Region 9 is that its boundaries coincide with the boundaries of the state California.  ASCE has 10 regions and except for Region 9, all the other regions cross state lines.  Region 10 is the world outside the USA.

As you know, this year the Branch is celebrating our 60th anniversary.  We have created a commemorative 60th anniversary logo.


We are in the process of having a banner made, which we will unveil later this year.  The banner highlights major civil engineering facilities in Orange County.  Here is a sneak peak!


As part of our 60th anniversary celebration we are having several special events.  As I write this, we are organizing a day trip in July where we will be visiting several Orange County Civil Engineering landmarks.  Stay tuned!

This fall we will present plaques to our three affiliate universities:  University of California Irvine, California State University Long Beach and California State University Fullerton.  We are working with the three schools to coordinate the events.

As you may have noticed, we are constantly upgrading our website (asceoc.org).  We have monthly conference calls with Jub Jub, our web site designer. To be economical, we make changes to the website ourselves - to the extent possible.  Kudos to our very techie Past President Joshua Nelson, PE and our current Treasurer, Gary Gilbert, PE, GE for doing the lion share so that our website keeps on looking better. Last year (2012), the OCB won the ASCE award for Outstanding Section and Branch Web award.


In the past year we have converted the Hydrology and Hydraulics Technical Group to the Environmental and Water Resource Institute (EWRI).  Being an Institute provides several benefits including the access for more resources at the national level.  We also created a brand new Geo-Institute.

The OCB has a stellar legacy in its leadership.  A number of our Presidents have gone on to become President of the Los Angeles Section.  Here is a list of our Past Presidents:
1) 1952—1953 Harold Springer (deceased)
2) 1953—1954 Ralph McLean (deceased)
3) 1954—1955 George Osborne (deceased)
4) 1955—1956 Ted Finster (deceased)
5) 1956—1957 Hugh Foreman
6) 1957—1958 Chester Schultz
7) 1958—1959 Return Moore
8) 1959—1960 Jim Ballinger (deceased)
9) 1960– 1961 Joe Truxaw (deceased)
10) 1961—1962 Floyd McLellan
11) 1962—1963 Dwight Schreoder
12) 1963—1964 Art Beard
13) 1964—1965 Ray Woodside
14) 1965—1966 Joe Brunner (deceased)
15) 1966—1967 Frank Hughes
16) 1967—1968 Hank Mohle (deceased)
17) 1968—1969 Doug Brown (deceased)
18) 1969—1970 George Madsen
19) 1970—1971 Don Fix
20) 1971—1972 Ron Wolford
21) 1972—1973 Jack Howe
22) 1973– 1974 Carl Nelson
23) 1974—1975 Hugh Halderman (deceased)
24) 1975—1976 Norm Spielman (deceased)
25) 1976—1977 Harold Wilson (deceased)
26) 1977—1978 Fred Meier (deceased)
27) 1978—1979 Bill Stracker
28) 1979—1980 Gary Dysart
29) 1980—1981 Warren Repke
30) 1981—1982 Jack Norris
31) 1982—1983 Fred MacMurdo
32) 1983—1984 Bob Brock
33) 1984—1985 Tom Lake (deceased)
34) 1985—1986 Steve Marvin
35) 1986—1987 Harvey Gobas
36) 1987—1988 Thornton Piersall (deceased)*
37) 1988—1989 Dave Prasifka
38) 1989—1990 Walt Nollac
39) 1990—1991 David Lee
40) 1991—1992 Bill Hoey
41) 1992—1993 Iraj Poormand
42) 1993—1994 Lloyd Dalton
43) 1994—1995 Derek McGregor
44) 1995—1996 Al Nestlinger
45) 1996—1997 C.T. Bathala
46) 1997—1998 George Jurica
47) 1998—1999 Allen Yourman
48) 1999—2000 Tony Rahimian
49) 2000—2001 Neil Morrison
50) 2001—2002 Don Currie
51) 2002—2003 Randall Berry
52) 2003—2004 Sonia Nasser
53) 2004—2005 Greg Heiertz
54) 2005—2006 John Hogan
55) 2006—2007 Yazdan Emrani
56) 2007—2008 Darren Adrian
57) 2008—2009 Ken Rosenfield
58) 2009—2010 Kathereen Shinkai
59) 2010—2011 Ziad Mazboudi
60) 2011—2012 Joshua Nelson

We have a number of committees that are active in various aspects of civil engineering and community service.  Visit our website for details.  Just like the Marines we are constantly looking for a “few good engineers” who will enhance the civil engineering community in Orange County and beyond.  If you have an interest in assisting any of the committees or have suggestions on how we can add value to our membership, please contact any of our Board Members. You can even contact all of our Board Members by emailing at board@asceoc.org.  I can be reached at president@asceoc.org or by phone: 949.278.7748.  We are number 4 this year.  How about being number 3 in 2014?  You can make it happen.

*Note when this article was first published, we did not note that Thornton Peirsall was deceased. That has now been corrected.

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