employees to 550. It is a “wonderfully balanced company,” says Houlahan, and covers a broad range of infrastructure and coastal structures, including container ports and offshore wind engineering. Others Opine Bob Bittner, DFI’s president, met Houlahan through Ben Gerwick, the renowned marine engineer. Gerwick respected Houlahan for his high technical competence and appreciated his enthusiasm, says Bittner. Houlahan succeeded Bittner as chair of the DFI technical committee on Marine Foundations and completely organized the first seminar for that committee in 2004, a highly successful event. Bittner says, “Houlahan knows how to organize things.” Fugro’s McNeilan also cites Houlahan’s “exceeding” enthusiasm and extends that characteristic to a “passion” for life. Richard Rhoads, Moffatt & Nichol, says that what sets Houlahan apart is his diverse experi- ence and his insights into design and construction solutions as well as his engi- neering analysis. He comes at things from an angle more traditional engineers don’t have access to. He can speak on broad terms regarding a project challenge, but his ability to “get down into the weeds” is unique. Passion for Life Even though Gerry Houlahan “lives engineering” according to colleague Jensen, he has a wide range of outside interests. He learned to fly in New Zealand, and their young family took flying vacations in the North Island. When they lived in London, he and his wife, who works in the investment industry, made frequent trips to Europe, especially France. They bought a house near Avignon in France, which they visit frequently. They now make wine from grapes they buy and pick locally in the San Francisco region. He talks of going to vineyards, picking 600 pounds of grapes to take home for wine making. Houlahan also invented a driven-grouted pile technique for calcareous soils some years ago, for which he obtained a patent, now expired, and more recently proposed a suction pile driving method. The couple have two well- traveled sons, one a doctor, and one who works for a computer game company. Every individual who commented on Houlahan for this profile mentioned his expertise, then his sense of humor, congeni- ality and enthusiasm. Rhoads says Houlahan is one of the most enjoyable people he has worked with, and Jensen describes him as “a man who has a good sense of people and of the importance of relationships.” Houlahan recalls he attended a DFI international conference with EFFC (the European Federation of Foundation Contractors) in Nice 2002, and enjoyed, and even remembers, some of the inter- national presentations. More important, he “immediately saw the value” of the combination of engineers, contractors and academia. He values the contribution of the professors researching problems for which the engineers need solutions, such as early contributions of Prof. Poulos on pile group effects on strength and stiffness. Houlahan now heads up the DFI Marine Foundations Technical Committee. Virginia Fairweather 42 • DEEP FOUNDATIONS • MAR/APR 2013
