Thank You Ralph
Dr. Ralph Peck was a huge influence on my career, especially during the past 14 years.
Although I was not one of Ralph's students, his prolific technical publications, conference
lectures, and our many personal discussions impacted the direction and substance of my
professional work. It is difficult now to select a single conversation or lecture, but a few
special memories come to mind:
Most of a day spent together attending sessions at Geo-Logan in 1997 when he
told me about his recent interesting site visit to Soldier Creek Dam in Utah and also
discussed unsaturated soil mechanics with amazing insight and perspective, even
though it was not one of his specialties,
Box lunches on the lawn at University of Illinois in 1999,
His powerful presentation at the USSD 2001 meeting in Denver, where he gave me
the photograph of himself that now hangs on my office wall, and
The breakfast with Ralph, Nancy and Allen Young, and Suzanne Lacasse in my room
at Vail, CO in June 2007 when we discussed the book Ralph B. Peck, Educator and
Engineer.
For the profound and positive influence that you had on my professional career and on
those of so many others, "Thank You Ralph".
Garry H. Gregory, Ph.D., P.E.
This letter is an excerpt from the Geo-Strata Feature on Professor Peck, Geo-Strata September/October 2008.
