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Carl L. Monismith, a distinguished U.C Berkeley engineering professor and researcher who for decades was one of the most widely admired and influential minds in the world of asphalt pavements and mentored generations of engineers, passed away in Montana on Jan. 7. He was 98.
His courtly manner and meticulous research earned Monismith legions of admirers across the nation, and worldwide, and he remained active well into his 90s. He authored hundreds of scholarly works and his research has been cited many hundreds of times. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering Hall of Fame, and has received recognition from the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) in its Hall of Fame, the Asphalt Institute's "Roll of Honor" and is also a member of the CalAPA “Hall of Fame” as an “Honorary Member.” His name also lives on with the American Society of Civil Engineers Carl L. Monismith Lecture on Pavement Engineering, which has been awarded every year since 2012. His scholarly works have won awards from the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists and the Transportation Research Board, and many others. He was active in numerous professional societies and served as past chair of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Asphalt Pavement.
One of his most impactful contributions in California was to the understanding of Long-life (Perpetual) Asphalt Pavement designs. He authored or oversaw numerous studies on the subject, and helped inspire the construction of a long-life asphalt project on the Long Beach (710) Freeway in Los Angeles County. His follow-up evaluations of the project for the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) confirmed the design was well on its way to meeting its 40-year-plus design life. Since the construction of the 710 project, Caltrans has built several other Long-life Asphalt Pavement projects on Interstate 5 in the North State, in the Sacramento area, and on Interstate 80 between Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area. The projects have garnered numerous awards for excellence and innovation, and the I-5 project in Sacramento was recognized by the national Asphalt Pavement Alliance at a meeting of the California Transportation Commission. Once considered experimental, the Long-life Asphalt Pavement strategy is now a permanent part of the Caltrans Highway Design Manual. A “California Asphalt” magazine profile of the ascent of Long-Life Asphalt Pavements on the state highway system is HERE.
As word spread of Monismith’s passing, there was an outpouring of condolences from the many lives he touched and careers he shaped.
Rita Leahy, Ph.D., former CalAPA Technical Director who also worked for the Asphalt Institute, said, “Carl was a thoughtful and generous man; a patient and perceptive listener, wise mentor, dear friend and inspiration to so many.”
Gary Hicks, Ph.D., a longtime professor of engineering at Cal State Chico and a 2018 ASCE Monismith Lecture honoree, recalls how he first met Monismith in 1962 when Hicks transferred to U.C. Berkeley and said Monismith was “highly regarded” in the asphalt industry. He chuckled at the 2010 CalAPA photo of Monismith at his UCPRC office in Richmond, recalling, “His system of filing was to stack, not file, and he knew where things were. Both his desk on campus and at the Richmond field site looked like that.”
Longtime California asphalt association executive Jim St. Martin said, “Carl was a great man, an industry giant and a truly wonderful person, a real gentleman. He was an invaluable asset to the entire HMA industry and I was honored to be able to work with him.”
Audrey Copeland, President and CEO of NAPA, recalled, “I feel very fortunate to have known Dr. Monismith – not as well as others, but to have interacted with him was a treat. I can remember how he called me a couple of times for information and how honored I felt that he was phoning me. I was always more than happy to help him. I also loved witnessing the friendship he had with Rita Leahy and others and how they visited after retirement. Such a wonderful example of how our industry brings people together for deep and meaningful relationships.”
Chris Gerber, president of G3 Quality, a materials testing lab, and also a CalAPA Board Member and officer, worked closely with Monismith on the 710 Long-life Asphalt Pavement Project. “He was one of the major innovators of the industry. He did invaluable work in the area of long-life asphalt pavements. His work represented the foundation of the long-life asphalt pavement design strategy in California in my book. He was always putting a helping hand out to industry for the benefit of the project. His approach was always, ‘let’s do things together.’”
Bob Humer, longtime Asphalt Institute Senior Regional Engineer based in California, who recently retired from the institute and was subsequently inducted into the CalAPA Hall of Fame, noted how Monismith influenced the course of his career when he was studying engineering in Holland, which eventually led him to the United States.
“Professor Monismith was an inspiration for me to choose this specialty of pavements in Civil Engineering,” Humer said. “It is an honor to have known him personally.”
Added Michael Anderson, Director of Research and Laboratory Services at the Asphalt Institute: "It is absolutely no exaggeration to say that Carl Monismith was an icon in the asphalt world. His teaching and research influenced generations of students and asphalt technologists alike. Carl’s dedication to the principles of research, engineering, and education led the Asphalt Institute to recognize him with the Roll of Honor award thirty-five years ago. All of us at the Asphalt Institute join with so many other colleagues and friends in both mourning his passing and celebrating his extraordinary life."
Born on Oct. 23, 1926, he enlisted in the Army in 1944, and studied at the University of Maryland and later at North Carolina State University. He was invited to the Army’s Officer Candidate School In Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and became a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers. He was stationed in the Philippines, and after being discharged from the Army worked for a time as a surveyor. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering at U.C. Berkeley in 1950, and in 1954 earned his Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering from Berkeley in 1954. He eventually became a professor of engineering at U.C. Berkeley, and was instrumental in working with Caltrans to bring two of the hulking Heavy Vehicle Simulators from South Africa to California, which are still in service testing pavements today. He also contributed important research for the FHWA Strategic Highway Research Program, and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program.
Monismith always was quick to give credit to others he worked with, including many that live on in asphalt lore, such as the legendary Caltrans Materials Engineer Francis Hveem. In an oral history interview of Monismith conducted by CalAPA in 2017, he in characteristically modest fashion described his approach to innovation this way: “These things started out because people were having problems, and you get together, and then you go home and you think about what are the things that should be done.” That, in turn, results in research, pilot projects, and then new standards and new specifications.
“I’ve enjoyed my entire career, because I’ve met so many good and nice people,” he told CalAPA. “I was going to be a structural engineer, and it helped me in terms of what I ended up doing, and I was also interested in soil mechanics, and that also helped me. But I think the thing that I think is most important, at least externally, is the fact that I have had so many fine people I’ve met in my life, not just here in Berkeley, but around the world.”
At one point during the interview he widened the lens and spoke about the importance of asphalt pavements, which connect communities across town or across the nation.
“I would say that, when you think about our infrastructure, pavements are a very large part of the infrastructure. They are important in terms of this whole matter of transportation. They take a large proportion of funds from the amount of money that we have to spend, so therefore you have to have a good education in terms of the necessary information you have to deal with. For example, in pavement design, you have to have engineering mechanics, so you can understand that. You have to have the ability to measure good material properties that can be related to the mechanics required. You have to recognize the importance of construction, because if you don’t build the pavement properly (problems can occur). You have to have good ideas and good measures of how to do this properly. In terms of drainage, you have to think of hydraulics, you have to think a little bit about the chemistry of the materials, so you have some idea of what your capabilities are. You’ll find this is a very good field to be in because you’ll have to do a lot of good work and a lot of knowledge is going to help you do good work. The important thing that you are doing is you are providing something that is going to be a lasting and very important activity.”
Monismith also was known for his keen sense of humor and quick wit, delivered with a Santa-like twinkle in his eye, and remained active and connected to the asphalt world in his later years. A longtime subscriber of this publication, he would periodically send in notes to the editor commenting on articles. Most recently he carried the title of Robert Horonjeff Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
In a 1999 interview with ACCESS magazine, a University of California publication, Monismith lauded the breakthrough research happening in the area of asphalt pavements and offered a somewhat tongue-in-cheek “Requiem for Potholes.” “Once we attain the quality of road standards of which we’re capable,” he said, “there’ll surely be not even a small obituary notice in the national press, because we’re seldom conscious of pavements that are intact. But, just as surely, no one will mourn the passing of the pothole.”
He passed away Jan. 7 in Missoula, Montana. A link to the official notice is HERE. A memorial service is tentatively scheduled to be held on March 7 at the St. Jerome Church, 308 Carmel Avenue, El Cerrito.
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