RICH

RICH 03.11. 1896 Worcester MA/USA 22.06. 1977 Boston MA/USA George Rollo Rich obtained in 1919 the BS degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester MA and the honorary doctorate degree in 1948. He was a structural designer of firms in Boston and New York State until 1925, then hydraulic engineer at Boston MA until 1931, when joining as hydraulic engineer the US War Department until 1937, and becoming chief design engineer of Tennessee Valley Authority TVA until 1946. After further works as a consultant he became lecturer in hydraulic structures at the Graduate School, Columbia University, New York, becoming a visiting lecturer in civil engineering at Harvard University, Cambridge MA, from 1956. Rich was a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers ASCE, and Honorary Member ASCE and ASME from 1974. He served the American Society of Mechanical Engineers ASME in works for the journal Applied Mechanics Review and a number of ASME committees. He received the ASCE Rickey Medal in 1968, among many other decorations. Rich was considered an authority on the design of hydro-electric power plants, and overall hydraulic engineering. Over a career of almost sixty years he was in charge of design of major installations in the eastern USA. He was credited for designing such notable works as the Conowingo Hydropower Project, the Fort Peck Project, the Cape Cod Ship Canal, the Marimbondo Hydroelectric Project in Brazil, or the St. Lawrence Power Project. He was known for a number of textbooks and papers. These include Hydraulic transients, and a chapter in the Handbook of applied hydraulics, edited by Calvin Victor Davis (1877-1946). He was an expert of water hammer phenomena and related hydraulic transients. Anonymous (1974). George R. Rich. Mechanical Engineering 96(6): 97. P Anonymous (1974). George R. Rich. Civil Engineering 44(10): 93. P Anonymous (1975). Rich, George R. Who’s who in America 38: 2575. Marquis: Chicago. Anonymous (1977). George R. Rich. Civil Engineering 47(10): 164. P Anonymous (1979). George R. Rich. Trans. ASCE 144: 547-548. Rich, G.R. (1945). Water-hammer analysis by the Laplace-Mellin transformation. Trans. ASME 67(7): 361-376. Rich, G.R. (1951). Hydraulic transients. McGraw-Hill: New York. Rich, G.R. (1952). Navigation locks. Handbook of applied hydraulics 16: 761-780, C.V. Davis, K.E. Sorensen, eds. McGraw-Hill: New York.