Richard George Weingardt (March 23, 1938 - September 24, 2013) was an American

structural engineer Structural engineers analyze, design, plan, and research List of structural elements, structural components and structural systems to achieve design goals and ensure the safety and comfort of users or occupants. Their work takes account mainly of ...

. Upon his death, Weingardt had worked on over 5,000 projects.

Personal life

Richard Weingardt was born in

Sterling, Colorado Sterling is a home rule municipality and the county seat and most populous municipality of Logan County, Colorado, United States. Sterling is the principal city of the Sterling, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area. The city population was 13,735 ...

, in 1938. His parents were Caroline and Martin Weingardt. His father was a

general contractor A contractor (North American English) or builder (British English), is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the c ...

. He had three siblings: one brother and two sisters. The family visited the

Royal Gorge Bridge The Royal Gorge Bridge is a tourist attraction near Cañon City, Colorado within Royal Gorge Bridge and Park, a 360-acre (150 ha) amusement park located along the edge of the Royal Gorge around both ends of the bridge. The bridge crosses ...

on a family vacation. That visit solidified Weingardt's desire to become an engineer. He attended a

Catholic school Catholic schools are Parochial school, parochial pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest parochial schools, religious, no ...

and graduated

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the class rank, highest-performing student of a graduation, graduating class of an academic institution in the United States. The valedictorian is generally determined by an academic institution's grade poin ...

. Weingardt started studying

architectural engineering Architectural engineering or architecture engineering, also known as building engineering, is a discipline that deals with the engineering and construction of buildings, such as environmental, structural, mechanical, electrical, computational, e ...

and changed his mind to study structural engineering. He earned his bachelors and master's from the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

. He majored in

structural engineering Structural engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering in which structural engineers are trained to design the 'bones and joints' that create the form and shape of human-made Structure#Load-bearing, structures. Structural engineers also ...

. He was particularly interested in the work of

Félix Candela Félix Candela Outeriño (; January 27, 1910 – December 7, 1997) was a Spanish and Mexican architect who was born in Madrid and at the age of 26, emigrated to Mexico, acquiring double nationality. He is known for his significant ...

. Weingardt was married to Evelyn S. Weingardt. He met her in

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

. She was a

cheerleader Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ent ...

and he was a

football player A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

. She also worked as his business partner. He would father three children: two girls and a boy. He was a hobby

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

, painting

landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

documenting the

American West The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is census regions United States Census Bureau As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the mea ...

. He died in, Denver, Colorado, in 2013 from complications from

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

. He was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Career

He once worked for the

Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it ...

after graduation. During this time period, he worked on different projects, including

transmission tower A transmission tower (also electricity pylon, hydro tower, or pylon) is a tall structure, usually a lattice tower made of steel that is used to support an overhead power line. In electrical grids, transmission towers carry high-voltage transmis ...

and

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

s. He left that position and worked for a Denver-based private firm. The build the Denver Convention Center. Weingardt founded his company, Richard Weingardt Consultants, in 1966. His firm designed three terminals at

Denver International Airport Denver International Airport , often referred to by locals as DIA, is an international airport in the Western United States, primarily serving metropolitan Denver, Colorado, as well as the greater Front Range Urban Corridor. At , Effective Ju ...

. The project was awarded the

American Society of Civil Engineers The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is a tax-exempt professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, it is the oldest national engineering soci ...

' "Civil Engineering Achievement Award" in 1997. The firm also designed work for the University of Colorado and designed mills in Russia. He was a writer, and documented engineering history and culture. He documented the life and work of

George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. (February 14, 1859 – November 22, 1896) was an American civil engineer. He is mostly known for creating the original Ferris Wheel for the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition. Early life Ferris was bor ...

and wrote about the history of the

. In 1978 he published 'Sound The Charge', a study of the 1869 battle between the US Cavalry and the Southern Cheyenne.Sound The Charge, Richard Weingardt, Jacqueline Enterprises, 1978 Weingardt served on a number of engineering boards, including the University of Colorado and the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

. He was given an

honorary doctoral degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

at the University of Colorado. He was president of the American Consulting Engineers Council. He also was on committees for the Colorado Historic Preservation Review Board, the Colorado State Electrical Board, and Colorado's Long-Range Planning Subcommittee. He lectured at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

. He was awarded the 2003 AAES Engineering Journalism Award.

Notable projects

*Integrated Teaching Lab, University of Colorado *

Harrah's New Orleans Caesars New Orleans, formerly Harrah's New Orleans, is a casino in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, near the foot of Canal Street a block away from the Mississippi River. It is a casino with approximately 2,100 slot machines, over 90 tab ...

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, with more than 28,000 Western and Native American art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of Amer ...

Bibliography

*Weingardt, Richard. ''Circles in the Sky: The Life and Times of George Ferris''. Reston: ASCE Publications (2009). *Weingardt, Richard. '' Engineering Legends: Great American Civil Engineers : 32 Profiles of Inspiration and Achievement''. Reston: ASCE Publications (2005).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weingardt, Richard 1938 births 2013 deaths American businesspeople American engineers University of Colorado Denver alumni University of Colorado Denver faculty University of Texas at Austin faculty People from Sterling, Colorado American male writers