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News | Archives Emeritus Professor in Civil Engineering, Bob Park, OBE, (right), wasn’t meant to be an engineer. He came from a long line of lawyers and was expected to continue the tradition. However, fortunately for New Zealand his chosen career path has meant most of our bridges and many of our buildings are more resistant to strong earthquake motions as a result of his research into seismic engineering. Professor Park’s work had a major impact on how we understand the
behaviour of reinforced concrete structures during earthquakes and the
design of concrete structures for seismic resistance. His later work focused
on the seismic assessment of older reinforced concrete buildings and bridge
structures, and seismic retrofit procedures. He was respected internationally
for his work in this area, and was chosen to lead the New Zealand Reconnaissance
Team in Kobe, Japan, after the earthquake of 1995. Much of New Zealand’s reputation and influence in the earthquake engineering of concrete structures results from the graduate programme at the Canterbury School of Engineering’s Department of Civil Engineering. Professor Park’s love of his research and teaching was evident, and he was always quick to credit the whole of his research group describing it as a particular strength at Canterbury. Also high on his life’s accomplishments was the book he co-authored.with Emeritus Professor Tom Paulay OBE. Their influential work Reinforced Concrete Structures was published in 1975 and has been reprinted 10 times in English and translated into Spanish and Chinese. It is described as a “good basic book on reinforced concrete theory and design’, which does not date. This work positioned him as a national and international expert for numerous technical committees, including the Seismic Commission of Federation Internationale de la Precontrainte (1972– 98); International Association for Earthquake Engineering, as Director (1992– 96), and Vice President (1996– 2000); International Federation for Structural Concrete, Commission 7: Seismic Design, as Deputy Chair (1998– 2003); Council of New Zealand Prestressed Concrete Institute (1970– 80, President 1975– 77); and Council of the Royal Society of New Zealand, (1974– 97). He received many prestigious awards from technical societies and scientific institutions for his published papers. They include the Murray Buxton Award of the Institution of Structural Engineers (UK), 1999; Fulton-Downer Gold Medal of the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand, 1997; and the T Y Lin Award of the American Society of Civil Engineers (USA), 1992, and received the University of Canterbury’s inaugural Research Medal in 1998. Other honours include being the first civil engineer invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand (1978); the invitation to become a Foreign Member of the Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering of the United Kingdom (FEng) (1990), one of only 31 such fellows; Honorary Membership of the American Concrete Institute (1997); the medal of the Federation Internationale de la Precontrainte (1997). Robert is survived by his wife Pauline, and was cherished by his late wife Kathy. He was a father, father-in-law, and grandfather. He was awarded the OBE in 1995 and made a Distinguished Fellow of The
Institution of Professional Engineers NZ (IPENZ) in 1998.
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