EGENDS Tribute to the DFI Legends Every four years, DFI and the DFI Educational Trust honor three practitioners — an engineer, contractor and manufacturer/supplier — who have shown steadfast professionalism, character and integrity, and Thomas J. Wysockey (1931–2019) Contractor Legend As chairman of Thatcher Foun- dations, Tom was well known for his integrity, ingenuity, commi tment to safety and great sense of humor. He was a DFI trustee and two annual DFI scholarships are awarded in his name. Regrettably, Tom is not here to receive the Legends Award, but I’m certain he will be here in spirit. I had the good fortune to work with Tom for 25+ years on several projects. Most notably, the Soldier Field renovation project, where he convinced code officials to raise the steel bearing stresses by 150 percent, which benefitted the whole industry. I valued my time with Tom at meetings of the Chicago Committee on High Rise Buildings. His skillful play with words was magical; he could influence code officials, general contractors, architects and engi- neers to complete hundreds of successful projects. Tom was also kind in quiet ways. When my wife was recovering from surgery, Tom and his wife, Simonne, insisted that we spend a day at their home while they gave my wife some TLC. This included some of Tom’s worst jokes because he said laughter is the best medicine. Tom lived big. His work includes many recognizable structures. He was generous to others and gave back to our foundation community. He truly was one of the great ones. By Bill Walton, P.E., S.E., D.GE, F.ASCE, senior vice president and former director at GEI Consultants pivotal today. The 2019 recipients are being honored at the DFI 44 Annual Conference on Deep Foundations in Chicago on Thursday, October 17. have made a broad impact on the industry with contributions that are th Prof. Thomas Bauer, Dr-Ing. E.h. Dipl.-Kfm Manufacturer/Supplier Legend Prof. Thomas Bauer is a genuine entre- preneur and a res- pected leader in the special foundations industry. He joined BAUER in 1982, as the seventh-gener- ation family member to do so. In 1986, he became the company’s sole managing director, and was the major driver for the group’s internationalization and trans- formed it from a mid-size Bavarian company to an international construction and equipment manufacturing group. When he assumed the managing director role, there were just four drilling rigs available: UBW, BG 7 and BG 11, and the first cutter system. Since, the equipment program has been expanded considerably with many variations of drill rigs, cutter systems, duty-cycle cranes, etc. available. Prof. Bauer has been very active in numerous industry associations, including as president of the Confederation of the German Construction Industry (2011- 2016) and as current vice president and future president of the European Construction Industry Federation. In November 2018, after 32 years at the helm of the BAUER Group, he retired as chairman of the management board of BAUER AG. This award is a testament to his lasting legacy in the special foundations industry. His impact has truly been significant across the entire sector through his relentless desire to innovate and set the highest standard in foundation drilling equipment. By John Theos, regional director, Americas for BAUER Spezialtiefbau DEEP FOUNDATIONS • SEPT/OCT 2019 • 31 Bengt Fellenius, Dr.Tech., P.Eng. Engineering Legend Engineers in the deep foundations industry will recog- nize Bengt Fellenius as a true l iving legend because of his over 60 year long and extraor- dinary career dealing with deep founda- tions of all types. The Fellenius name is familiar to all geotechnical engineers from Bengt’s grandfather, thanks to his development of the “slip circle” method of analysis for slope stability problems. After serving in the Army in his native Sweden, Bengt followed in the footsteps of his famous grandfather and father into geotechnical engineering including serving a time at the Swedish Geotechnical Institute (SGI) as a research engineer before moving to Canada in 1972. Bengt was a professor at the University of Ottawa from 1979 through 2002 and has continued to practice as a consultant on deep foundation works worldwide. He is best known for his work in understanding fundamentals of pile behavior from his keen understandings and observations of instrumented load tests, dynamic testing, pile driving problems and downdrag forces on deep foundations. On a personal note, I always make it a point to engage Bengt in a conversation whenever the opportunity arises because I always learn something from his vast wealth of experience and insight. He has made a difference in our profession. By Dan Brown, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, president, Dan Brown Associates
