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PHILIP C
.
RUTLEDGE
1906-1990
BY JAMES P. GOULD
PHILIP C RUTLEDGE consulting engineer and teacher, died on
July 14, 1990, at the age of eighty-four. Elected to the National
Academy of Engineering in 196S, Dr. Rutledge was a pioneer
and leader in geotechnical engineering since its early develop-
ment in the United States in the 1930s. His consulting was
marked by the systematic application of fundamental soil me-
chanics to many of the most important earthwork and founda-
tion projects of his time.
A graduate of Harvarc! College in 1927, Rutledge received an
M.S. in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) in 1933 and D.Sc. from Harvard in 1939. In
1957 he was awarded an honorary doctor of engineering degree
from Purdue. His career spanned fiftyyears between graduation
in 1927 and retirement from consulting practice in 1977. This
time was divided into two periods: he spent the first twenty-five
years as a teacher and specialized consultant to industry and the
federal government, the last twenty-five as a partner of Mueser
Rutledge Consulting Engineers in New York City. In his early
years, Rutledge worker! with the leaders of the new soil mechan-
ics at MIT until 1933 and at Harvard from 1933 to 1937. With
Arthur Casagrande he organized the first International Confer-
ence on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, which was
held in Cambridge in 1937.
As a professor from 1937 to 1943 at Purdue University and
237
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238
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
from 1943 to 1952 at Northwestern University Technological
Institute, he was instrumental in establishing geotechnical stud-
ies in their civil engineering clepartments. At Northwestern he
collaborated with Torj O. Osterberg to design and build an
impressive array of laboratory testing equipment, which gave
Northwestern one of the strongest soil mechanics programs in
the country. He moved from the position of department chair-
man at Northwestern to a consulting practice at Mueser Rut-
ledge in 1952.
While teaching, he served the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
as consultant on airfield pavements and as chairman of their
pane] on soil mechanics research and clevelopment, receiving in
1949 the War Department's Certificate of Appreciation for
services in developing airfield pavements for heavy aircraft. One
of his most important contributions was a 1947 review of the
Waterways Experiment Station research program on shear
strength of clay, research that had been performed by Casa-
grande at Harvard and DonalcI Taylor at MIT.
Rutledge's contacts while et Northwestern Universitywith the
then Moran Proctor Freeman and Mueser firm led to his accep-
tance of an offer tojoin the firm in 1952. During the next twenty-
five years his consulting activities expancled to include many of
the largest heavy-construction projects of the clay. In collabora-
tion with his partners, who were founciation engineers of vast
experience, Rutledge contributed the insights and logic of
modern soil mechanics. His specialties included earth dams,
tunnels, building foundations, waterfront structures, and un-
derground construction.
For twelve years, from 1962 to 1974, he was chairman of the
Board of Consultants for earth and rockfill dams of the California
Department of Water Resources. He participated in the comple-
tion of seven major dams. Five of these range upward from 300
feet in maximum height to the 770-foot-high Oroville Dam.
Pumper! storage hydroelectric developments were another spe-
cialty, comprising seven major projects including the Blenheim-
Gilboa facility of the State of New York Power Authority.
Because of his extraordinary ability to adapt basic geotechni-
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PHILIP C. RUTLEDGE
· ~
239
cat engineering to practical construction problems, he was
much sought after as a consultant on projects of grand scale.
Rutledge participated in advisory boards for the Plowshare
project of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Salinity Control
Barriers in San Francisco Bay, foundations for atomic accelera-
tors of Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, and the AtianticPacific
Interoceanic Sea Level Canal Study of the Corps of Engineers.
Some of his most effective work was done in a classic colIabo-
ration with his partner William H. Mueser. Mueser was the hard-
driving fleer, Rutledge the quiet analyst never committing until
he had thought through the problem. Together they forged the
basic foundation concepts for the Savannah River atomic plant,
Texas Tower radar platforms, the Washington subway, the Ver-
tical Assembly Building at Cape Kennedy, and a series of new
buildings for the expanded congressional facilities in Washing-
ton, D.C.
Throughout his career, he was active in the American Society
of Civil Engineers, serving as president of the New York Metro-
politan Section in 1955, national director from 1958 to 1960, and
member en cl chairman of the Executive Committee of the
Geotechnical Engineering Division from 1947 to 1952. He was
the 1969 Terzaghi Lecturer and recipient of the Terzaghi Award.
To his many students cluring the first twenty-five years of his
career, Rutledge was an extraordinarily well-organizecT, concise,
en cl sympathetic teacher, presenting rapidly evolving ideas in
soil mechanics, a field in which he had contributed significantly.
His particular research interests included the relationship of
shear strength of clays to their preconsolidation stress, stability
of foundations under lateral load, mechanics of load transfer in
foundation piles, and the assessment of sample disturbance in
consolidation testing.
To his partners and colleagues at Mueser Rutledge Consult-
ing Engineers, he was the final authority on geotechnical mat-
ters. If no answer was forthcoming from the literature or from
the firm's experience, Rutledge would make his own concise
analysis and recommendation. Nothing pleased him more than
an opportunity to solve a difficult foundation problem by work-
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
ing up from first principles of mechanics. Although he was
entirely separated from academia in the latter half of his career,
he functioned as teacher and preceptor for his colleagues.
Whatever the accomplishments of his successors, their bestwork
will bear the imprint of Philip C. Rutledge.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
rutledge consulting
