James “Jim” Rossberg, who fostered a community of structural engineers and helped expand the scope of the Bible for structural design loads, died this week, the American Society of Civil Engineers announced. He was 65 years old.
Rossberg joined ASCE in 1993 as part of its Civil Engineering Research Foundation. In 1997, he launched ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute (SEI), which today has 30,000 members. He eventually came to oversee all the group’s institutes, as managing director of engineering programs. In this role, he also formed the Institute of Engineering, Utility and Surveying.
Rossberg was also responsible for helping to grow the ASCE 7 standard, Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures. He grew the program from 10 standards to over 50.
And thanks to Rossberg’s legacy, ASCE continues to expand the scope of the standard. Thomas Smith, ASCE’s executive director, notes that ASCE 7-22 added a chapter on tornadoes, and the next iteration may incorporate climate data.
“It’s really had a tremendous impact on the advancement of public health and safety,” says Smith of the standard.
Donald Dusenberry, who chairs the ASCE/SEI committees on building explosion protection and disproportionate mitigation of collapse of building structures, says Rossberg “was very effective” in coordinating volunteer engineer members of the rules drafting committees. Rossberg recruited Dusenberry to the leadership role on the two committees he chairs.
“He was just a nice guy,” Dusenberry says. “He was able to connect with people and gain their trust instantly.”
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Rossberg formed teams to evaluate the performance of the 110-story twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. On September 11, Dusenberry and Rossberg were in a conference call with other engineers, coincidentally discussing the ASCE explosion standard, when Dusenberry witnessed the plane hit the second tower of the WTC in New York City, and Rossberg saw smoke rising over the Pentagon from where he had parked to take the call.
The group published the first assessment of the behavior and failure mechanisms of buildings in and around Manhattan’s Ground Zero. Rossberg was recognized as a 2002 ENR Newsmaker for organizing this effort.
Rossberg also contributed to other ASCE disaster response teams, including the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 Chile earthquake, according to ASCE.
In 2022, ASCE honored Rossberg with the William H. Wisely Award for his efforts to “improve [ASCE’s] history, tradition, development and technical and professional activities”. At the time of Rossberg’s retirement later that year, he shared with his ASCE colleagues that his proudest accomplishment with the organization was the staff he hired and the volunteers he brought on board.
Smith credits Rossberg with helping to hire and mentor many of ASCE’s technical staff and CEOs, as well as recruiting volunteers. “He was really the foundation of our coaching staff,” he says.
Rossberg earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in structural engineering from Old Dominion University, according to his LinkedIn profile. He worked as a project engineer until he took a role with the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, the first of several industry groups he helped lead before joining the ASCE staff.
“He was very effective during his long career at ASCE in making things happen for the good of the profession and ultimately society,” says Dusenberry.
Ronald O. Hamburger, consulting principal at Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, recalls meeting Rossberg while serving on the board of the National Council of Structural Engineering Associations. He says a friendship grew despite their different organizations, and “Jim was a big contributor to the eventual collaboration that blossomed and thrived” between SEI, NCSEA and the Coalition of American Structural Engineers.
Hamburger collaborated with Rossberg on some of the highlights of Rossberg’s career, including ASCE 7 and the World Trade Center disaster assessment. His panel of experts recommended changes to the International Building Code in response to the destruction of the Twin Towers.
“I always found him to be a tireless advocate for the interests of practicing structural engineers and to be effective in bringing together coalitions of engineers to solve difficult problems,” says Hamburger. “Beyond that, he was a gentleman and a friend. I will miss him very much.”
