CONNECTIONS The EERI Oral History Series Robert Park Thomas Paulay Robert Reitherman Interviewer CONNECTIONS The EERI Oral History Series Robert Park Thomas Paulay CONNECTIONS The EERI Oral History Series Robert Park Thomas Paulay Robert Reitherman, Interviewer M Earthquake Engineering Research Institute New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering Inc Editor: Gail Hynes Shea, Berkeley, California Cover and book design: Laura H. Moger, Moorpark, California Copyright 2006 by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute All rights reserved. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. No part may be reproduced, quoted, or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the Executive Director of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. Requests for permission to quote for publi- cation should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the oral history subjects and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. Published by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute 499 14th Street, Suite 320 Oakland, CA 94612-1934 Tel: (5 10) 45 1-090s Fax: (510) 451-5411 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.eeri.org EERI Publication Number: OHS-12 ISBN (pbk.): 1-932884-1 1-4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Park, R. (Robert), 1933- Robert Park and Thomas Paulay / Robert Reitherman, interviewer. p. cm. -- (Connections: the EERI oral history series ; 12) Includes index. ISBN 1-932884-1 1-4 (alk. paper) 1. Park, R. (Robert), 1933---Interviews. 2. Paulay, T., 192 3---Interviews. 3. Earthquake engineering--History. 4. Civil engineers--New Zealand--Christchurch--Interviews.I. Reitherman, Robert, 1950- 11. Paulay, T., 1923- 111. Title. W.Series. TA140.P28AS 2006 624.1 ‘762092 2 --d ~2 2 2006004262 Printed in the United States of America 12345678 13 12 111009080706 Acknowledgments EERI gratefully acknowledges partial funding of this project by the National Science Foundation and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. V Schematic map of New Zealand showing places mentioned in the Park and Paulay oral histories. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgments ................................................................................................. v The EERI Oral History Series ........................................................................... ix ... Foreword ......................................................................................................... XIII Preface ......................................................................................................... xvii Personal Introduction by M . J . Nigel Priestley ................................................. xix Robert Park ... Chapter 1 Growing up in Fiji ....................................................................... 1 Chapter 2 Going to College at the University of Canterbury .................... 5 Chapter 3 Getting a Master’s and a Ph.D. ................................................. 13 Chapter 4 Returning to the University of Canterbury.............................. 19 Chapter 5 Reinforced Concrete Slabs and Reinforced Concrete Stmctures ..................................................... 29 Chapter 6 New Zealand and Its Innovative Approaches to Seismic Design ...................................................................... 37 Chapter 7 Lessons Earthquakes Teach Us ................................................. 53 Chapter 8 Current Work, Future Hopes ................................................... 61 Photographs Robert Park ............................................................................... 63 Thomas Paulay Chapter 1 Growing up in Hungary ........................................................... 77 Chapter 2 In the Army During the Second World War ........................... 85 Chapter 3 After the War ............................................................................ 93 Chapter 4 Coming to New Zealand ........................................................ 101 Chapter 5 The University of Canterbury ................................................ 105 Chapter 6 Philosophy of Seismic Design ................................................ 117 Photographs Thomas Paulay ........................................................................ 131 Robert Park and Thomas Paulay A Conversation with Robert and Thomas Paulay ........................................... 141 Photographs Robert Park and Thomas Paulay ............................................ 155 Index ........................................................................................................ 159 vii The EERI Oral History Series This is the twelfth volume in Connections: The EERI Oral History Series. The Earth- quake Engineering Research Institute initiated the Connections series to preserve the recollections of some of those who have had pioneering careers in the field of earth- quake engineering. Significant, even revolutionary, changes have occurred in earth- quake engineering since individuals first began thinking in modern, scientific ways about how to protect construction and society from earthquakes. The Connections series helps document this significant history. Connections is a vehicle for transmitting the fascinating accounts of individuals who were present at the beginning of important developments in the field, documenting sometimes little-known facts about this history, and recording impressions, judgments, and experiences from a personal standpoint. These reminiscences are themselves a vital contribution to our understanding of where our current state of knowledge came from and how the overall goal of reducing earthquake losses has been advanced. The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, founded in 1948 as a nonprofit organiza- tion to provide an institutional base for the then-young field of earthquake engineer- ing, is proud to help tell the story of the development of earthquake engineering through these Connections volumes. EERI has grown from a few dozen individuals in a field that lacked any significant research funding to an organization with nearly 3,000 members. It is still devoted to its original goal of investigating the effects of destructive earthquakes and publishing the results through its reconnaissance report series. EERI brings researchers and practitioners together to exchange information at its annual meetings, and via a now-extensive calendar of conferences and workshops. EERI pro- vides a forum through which individuals and organizations of various disciplinary backgrounds can work together for increased seismic safety. The EERI oral history program was initiated in 1984 by Stanley Scott (1921-2002). Scott was a research political scientist at the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California at Berkeley and had been active in developing seismic safety ix policy for many years. He was a member of the California Seismic Safety Commission from 1975 to 1993, and received the Alfred E. Alquist Award from the Earthquake Safety Foundation in 1990. Scott initiated the oral history project in 1984 with his first interviewee, Henry Degenkolb. The Regional Oral History Office at the University of California at Berkeley eventually approved the interview project on an unfunded basis, and Scott continued his interviews following his retirement from the university in 1989. For a time, some expenses were paid from a small grant from the National Science Foundation, but Scott did most of the work pro bono. Scott’s work summed to hundreds of hours of taped interview sessions and thousands of pages of transcripts. Were it not for him, valuable facts and recollections would have been lost. In fact, many of the people he inter- viewed early in the project have now passed away. The first nine volumes of Connections were published during Scott’s lifetime. Manuscripts and inter- view transcripts he bequeathed to EERI will eventually result in posthumous publication of several other volumes. The Oral History Committee has now expanded the program to include additional interviews with subjects who have: 1) outstanding, career-long contributions to earthquake engi- neering; 2) valuable first-person accounts to offer concerning the history of earthquake engineer- ing; and 3) backgrounds that span the various disciplines included in the field of earthquake engineering. The events described in these oral histories span research, design, public policy, broad social issues, and education, as well as interesting personal aspects of the subjects’ lives. EEN hopes that the Connections Oral History Series will offer insights into the history of earthquake engineering and the influential figures who shaped its progress. X Published volumes in Connections: The EERl Oral History Series Henry J. Degenkolb 1994 John A. Blume 1994 Michael V. Pregnoff and John E. Rmne 1996 George W. Housner 1997 William W. Moore 1998 Robert E. Wallace 1999 Nicholas F. Forell 2000 Henry J. Brunnier and Charles De Maria 2001 Egor P. Popov 2001 Clarence R. Allen 2002 Joseph Penzien 2004 Robert Park and Thomas Paulay 2006 EERI Oral History Committee Robert Reitherman, Chair William Anderson Roger Borcherdt Gregg Brandow Ricardo Dobry Robert Hanson Loring A. Wyllie, Jr. xi Foreword This volume originated in a brief conversation