Fred Meier

Fred Meier, PE served as president of the Orange County Branch from October 1977 to September 1978.  Fred’s first visit to California was as a member of the University of Nebraska football team when they won the 1941 Rose Bowl game against Stanford University.

He was president of Nebraska's ASCE Student Chapter from 1941-42.  Fred and his beloved wife Jane were married shortly after graduation in 1942.  His professional career began as a member of the U. S. Navy’s famous “Sea Bees” (Construction Battalions) deployed to the Japanese-occupied South Pacific Island, Guadalcanal where he was involved in airfield construction.  After the war Fred and Jane relocated to California where he became a construction engineer with the Navy’s contractor building the 80 mile-long San Diego Pipeline to deliver water from the San Jacinto Tunnel of Metropolitan Water District’s Colorado River aqueduct. 

Most of Fred’s family life with Jane was in Orange County where he was an estimator for construction companies, construction manager/consultant, expert witness and arbitrator.  Fred is survived by Jane and three sons, Michael, Stephen and John along with 4 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

As President of ASCE’s Orange County Branch, Fred initiated a Branch History and Heritage Committee. Later, he chaired the committee for the next 20 years. Under his tutelage and authorship ten Civil Engineering Historic Landmark projects in Orange County have been added to the Los Angeles Section list of landmarks.  In 2002 Fred and Jane initiated, edited and produced a hard cover book, Civil Engineers Building a Better World, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the American Society of Civil Engineers.  The book includes 31 Southern California project histories, 7 of which he authored personally.

At the Los Angeles Section of ASCE, Fred was a member of the History and Heritage committee for ten years and authored the Section’s nomination of the Colorado River Aqueduct as a National Civil Engineering Historic Landmark.  He also served as chairman of the Construction Technical Group and a member of the Forensic Group.  Fred authored successful nominations for national recognition, including George Williams for Honorary Member of ASCE, George Osborne as Zone IV ASCE Government Engineer of the Year 1994, and the Orange County Branch for National History and Heritage Citation.  

Fred himself won the following honors:

• National Civil Engineering History and Heritage Award 2005

• Los Angeles Section Outstanding Life Member 2002

• Orange County Engineer of Merit Award 1992

• Lifetime Achievement Award 2001

• The Prestigious Engineering Service Award 2002.

The American Society of Civil Engineers lost one of our most devoted engineering brothers on December 29, 2010 when Frederick J. Meier passed away.