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Dr. Arnold Wilson: A Pioneer Heads for Retirement
by Freda Parker
Click Here To Read More About The Text Book Written By Dr. Wilson: Practical Design of Concrete Shells |
December 28, 2007
A Fulfilling Career
"This has been a most exciting ride for me -- one that has lasted my whole life," said Dr. Arnold Wilson.
Referring to his 40-year teaching career as a Professor of Civil Engineering at Brigham Young University (BYU) and his more than 30 years as Monolithic's Senior Consulting Engineer, Arnold added, "It's just been a wonderful trip for me. It's been exciting. I have done things that I had never even dreamed that I would do."
At BYU
Those "things" include some 30 years of teaching classes on thin shell concrete dome construction and counseling his students, some of whom now have careers of their own as Civil Engineers specializing in dome construction.
"I got interested in thin shell domes way back when I was a student -- back in the late 1950s," Arnold said. "Harry Hodson, an engineering professor at BYU who had done some domes in Australia, got me interested."
In 1961, Professor Hodson asked Arnold to join him in the engineering of a giant ice skating rink, a historic thin shell concrete dome that residents of Provo, Utah would eventually name "Ream's Turtle" and that was razed in 2006 (see Dr. Arnold Wilson and the Ream's Turtle).
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At Monolithic
In the 1970s, Arnold met David B. South, president of Monolithic. That meeting marked the beginning of a personally and professionally rewarding relationship for both.
"I believe Arnold has engineered more thin shells than anyone else, living or dead," David said. Those projects include more than 1500 thin shells located throughout the U.S. and in 40 other countries.
"There's what I call a 'train of super engineers' -- professionals, over the ages, primarily responsible for the development and advancement of thin shell concrete domes," David said. "Well, when you talk about that train, you have to include Arnold. When it comes to the engineering of domes built using Airforms, Arnold is a pioneer. I would put him directly after David Billington" (Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, NJ).
Arnold agrees with that placement. He said, "Billington wrote a very excellent book. I used both the first and second edition as class texts until I retired from teaching in 1997. But Billington didn't do a lot of domes. He did reactors for power plants, cooling towers for big, electric power plants and some other exotic things. Writing his book was the big thing. He helped a lot of people when he did that." (David P. Billington wrote Thin Shell Concrete Structures, McGraw-Hill, 1965 and 1982.)
Arnold met Dr. Billington through Committee 334 -- a group of professionals from American Concrete International and the American Society of Civil Engineers who are interested in thin shell structures. About that meeting, Arnold said, "He (Billington) knew that over the years I had used his books. Actually, I found some errors in them. That, in itself, was no big deal because all books have mistakes. So, I just marked what I found and sent them to the publisher. Years later, when he and I were talking he thanked me for sending in those corrections."
Through Committee 334, Arnold also met Anton Tedesko (1903-1994) whom he describes as a "practicing engineer." Arnold said, "Tedesko came out of Germany and he had experience there before coming here. He did some very large structures -- aircraft hangars and structures with big arches. Way ahead of his time and very, very excellent work."
Arnold writes a book!
It took a long, hard, persistent time for David South and others at Monolithic to get Arnold to put his expertise into a text for engineers, architects, builders and students of civil engineering.
In 2005, Arnold finally did it. He wrote Practical Design of Concrete Shells -- 398 pages of domes designed as commercial, public or private facilities. They include unique residences as well as huge domes with diameters of 1000 feet, airplane hangars and water tanks.
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Planning his retirement
With the book completed and available to others, Arnold and Joyce, his wife, are looking forward to some free time and a little traveling.
"As I said, this has been an exciting and rewarding time for me. Now I'm ready to retire," Arnold concluded.
Apparently, retirement will be Arnold's newest endeavor. So be it. All of Monolithic wishes Arnold and Joyce much success, health and happiness as they begin this new phase of their life.
Related links
- Dr. Arnold Wilson and Domes -- Past, Present and Future
- Dr. Arnold Wilson and the Ream's Turtle
- Why Build a Concrete Dome?
- Dr. Arnold Wilson -- FEMA -- Design and Construction for Community Shelters and Its Application to Domes
- The Monolithic Dome -- Surviving Tornadoes and Hurricanes
- Technical Journal: Think Round
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