Willard Eastman Simpson, P.E.
1883 - 1967
W.E. Simpson was born on May 8, 1883 in San Antonio, Texas. Simpson spent his childhood in San Antonio attending private schools and the West Texas Military Academy (currently known as Texas Military Institute – TMI) as a classmate of Douglas MacArthur. Upon graduating from the Academy in 1901, he followed his father’s ambitions for him and entered Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a student of Naval Architecture. Influenced by MIT’s President Henry Pritchett and Professor Charles Swain, both Civil Engineers, Simpson changed the emphasis of his studies to Civil Engineering. While a student at MIT, Simpson developed the foundation for his lifelong journey of education and leadership. Reflecting on his education, Simpson said “When I was at MIT, the instruction wasn’t simply about the teaching of engineering matters, but the whole school was devoted to instilling in us the idea that we would become professional engineers and leaders in our field. We were taught to continually study and improve our minds – and keep abreast of the times. As professional men (and women) of learning, we were able to show the way for others.” In June 1905 he graduated from M.I.T. with a Bachelor’s of Science in Civil Engineering with a specialization in Structural Engineering.
Simpson took his first job at MIT as an assistant instructor working under Professor Swain. After a year, he left M.I.T. to work the Southern Pacific Railroad in Tuscon, Arizona as a junior engineer and draftsman. While at the railroad, and with much resistance from his boss, Simpson proved the value of the contour pen and the Mannheim slide rule by solving a number of problems on railroad curves in two days where as the Chief engineer took two weeks to solve the same problems. Simpson stayed with the railroad for two years before returning home.
In 1907 Simpson returned to San Antonio to work with architect J. Flood Walker. Although a structural engineer was unheard of at that time he convinced Walker that he could do both architectural drafting and structural engineering. He worked at this office through 1908, during which time he designed and drew the plans for structural frame of the St. Anthony Hotel.
In 1909, Simpson and his brother Guy introduced the G. C. Simpson Construction Company. The Simpson brothers showcased their innovative techniques by utilizing the Aiken Cement House Company’s method of casting concrete walls flat on their backs and lifting them into place. One of their interesting projects was a four-story concrete building at the West Texas Military Academy (Currently TMI). The first two stories walls were placed on the ground and erected into place, the concrete floors were placed, and then the upper two floors placed and erected from the second floor. Simpson believed that this was the first instance that the tilt-up slab method was used for building walls. They became very proficient and acting as sub-contractors built many buildings at Fort Crockett in Galveston using this method. However, an unscrupulous contractor did not pay them for their Fort Crockett work and the company went bankrupt.
After losing everything in the construction company, Simpson opened his office as a Structural Engineer in 1911. Simpson along with Mr. Robert Cummins of Houston, Mr. Jameson of Dallas and Mr. Geren of Fort Worth, were pioneers in the profession of Structural Engineers in private practice. Simpson started out designing structural frames mostly for schools and small business buildings. Simpson had to educate the Architects of the necessity of using a structural engineer and convince them to pay him enough for his services to meet his basic needs. At the time the steel reinforcing companies were furnishing structural plans for nothing and charging for the plans in the price of steel. After gaining the support of several steel companies, Simpson proceeded to show owners that they were paying for the steel plans twice when the architects allowed a steel company to furnish them for free. After a couple years of persistency and honesty, Simpson gradually got Architects to see the wisdom of furnishing structural plans as part of the bid documents.
As San Antonio grew, it became necessary to widen Commerce Street in 1913. A major obstacle for the project was the five-story marble clad Alamo National Bank building on the southwest corner of the Presa Street intersection. With engineering advice the bank agreed to move the building back 16 feet. Under the direction of Simpson, the relocation was accomplished by raising the building on 1800 screw jacks onto rollers to move the building onto a new foundation. The bank remained operational throughout the move, which established Simpson’s reputation as a distinguished engineer. Three stories were added to the building shortly after the move.
The value of Structural Engineers became more evident when the unstable topsoils of San Antonio and the Gulf Region began wrecking havoc on building foundations. Conventional foundations at the time were shallow, bearing just below the surface of the ground. Underlying soils would expand and contract during wet and dry cycles and eventually wreck buildings supported on these shallow foundations. When one of his own buildings became seriously distorted Simpson began to reason why it was happening in an effort to avoid it. In the early years geotechnical engineering did not exist as it does today, so Simpson had to develop his own expertise in soils engineering. He began quite an intensive study of the foundation soils within the area of San Antonio. In 1916, while visiting the foundation work on a residence Simpson saw a well driller drilling with an 18” diameter auger powered by a mule walking around in a circle. He asked the well driller, Mr. Ed Duderstadt if he would try drilling holes to be filled with concrete and reinforcing bars. Duderstadt cooperated with Simpson and the drilled pile was born. Simpson pioneered the method of bypassing unstable soils and transferring the loads through slender cylindrical concrete shafts to reach the more stable soils found at greater depths. Especially significant was the method of reaming out the shaft at the bottom providing adequate bearing area for the building loads. In the early days this was accomplished by lowering a man down the shaft who formed the under-ream by hand. Later, Simpson collaborated with Duderstadt to devise a reaming devise to under-ream the shafts. Simpson’s expertise in soils and foundations found him employed almost continuously by the U.S. Army and Air Force for all foundation problems in military posts and Air Force bases in the vicinity of San Antonio.
By 1919 the need for highways became apparent and W.E. Simpson Co. became the Highway Engineers for Kerr, Kimble, Edwards and Real Counties. The existing roads were gravel or dirt with few bridges over area rivers and their tributaries. During rains the river crossings became nearly impassable and Simpson, in his Model T roadster had to wait for the water to recede. To reduce the hours of delay at the crossing Simpson would tie a tarpaulin across the front radiator and along the sides of the hood and advance into the crossing as quickly as
labor. The engineer had to carry his alignment around the hills. Cut and fill had to be balanced. Borrow was a terrible word in those days. While serving as Highway Engineer, Simpson was proud to include in his body of work the International Bridge across the Rio Grande river at Laredo, Texas and the bridge across the Santa Catalina River in Monterey, Mexico. Both bridges span 1,600 feet. On one occasion the International Bridge withstood being inundated with floodwater that rose to 6 feet above the bridge floor.
The late twenties were boom times in the country and many landmark buildings were constructed during this era. Simpson was called upon regularly to design the structure of these buildings. Some of the notable buildings for which his company designed the structures are: the Medical Arts Building in San Antonio (1926), the Nix Building in San Antonio (26 stories, 1930), the San Antonio Post Office Building (1936), the Federal Courthouse in Austin, and the State Highway Department Building, and Baylor University (currently Floyd Casey) Stadium (1950). Two of the most notable projects are the Smith Young Tower (currently known as the Tower Life Building) and the Gulf Building in Houston.
In 1925, W. E. Simpson Co. was contracted to design the structure and foundation for the the 31 story Smith Young Tower in San Antonio with Ayres & Ayres Architects. The steel superstructure was supported on drilled and under-reamed footings founded fifty feet below the street level. The foundation soils at this level was a hard blue marl which Simpson concluded could support 10 to 15 tons per square foot after reviewing compression tests on the soils. The project became the first high rise building to be supported on drilled and under-reamed piers.
In the late twenties, the W.E. Simpson Co. was contracted by Jesse H. Jones to design the structural frame and foundation for the Gulf Building in Houston with the architect Alfred Finn. Simpson had been reading extensively on experiments being made in a study of foundation soils on clay at M.I.T. by Dr. Casagrande and Dr. Karl Terzaghi (a great international authority and engineer on foundation soils). The Gulf Building was to be a thirty-story structure with a basement. Simpson concluded that the bearing soils six feet deeper than the depth required by the building structure had sufficient stiffness and strengths to support the proposed structure by using a mat foundation without the necessity of driven piles. After much discussion, Dr. Terzaghi was consulted and provided his recommendations that a mat foundation without driven piles would serve satisfactorily. The use of mat foundations without driven piles on tall structures was a breakthrough in the Houston area. A structural steel frame utilizing a portal system was designed to support the building. This design required moment as well as shear transfer at beam to column connections. At the time, driven rivets were used for standard field connections. After fourteen floors were constructed, Mr. Jones decided to add four additional stories to the building to ensure the building would remain the tallest building in the South, west of the Mississippi. When telephoned to see if the additional floors could be added, Simpson stated that it would take some time to review the calculations to which Mr. Jones replied “That’s all right, I’ll hold the line open for 20 minutes waiting for your reply.” Simpson and Mr. Manfred Gerhardt, his chief engineer, collaborated to determine that the floors could be added if the columns up to the fourteenth floor were strengthened. The solution was to add continuous steel angles to the four corners of the columns and became the first significant field welding operation in the erection of a structural steel building in the South. The Gulf Building was designated a ASCE National Civil Engineering Landmark in 1997.
In 1937 the Texas Engineering Practice Act was enacted to protect the public safety and welfare in the aftermath of the New London School explosion in which almost three hundred students and teachers were killed as a result of improperly designed mechanical and electrical devices. After practicing engineering more than thirty years, Simpson initially resisted the requirement for engineers to be registered; but in 1938 he obtained a license to practice engineering from the Texas Board of Professional Engineers (License No. 1400).
In 1955, architect O’Neil Ford called upon the W.E. Simpson Co. for their innovative structural design on the Villita Assembly Building in San Antonio. The result was a round building with one of the country’s first cable supported roof structure. The 132’ diameter roof is concave with a tension ring in the center supported by cables to a compression ring at the outside top. Small trapezoidal precast concrete panels were attached between the cables for the roof deck.
Simpson maintained his commitment to the advancement of the engineering profession by actively participating in and serving as the President of the Texas Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in 1949, He was also an early president of the Bexar Chapter of the Texas Society of Professional Engineers (TSPE). In 1955 he was awarded TSPE Bexar Chapter Engineer of the Year.
Simpson took a great interest in San Antonio outside of his engineering practice and volunteered his time freely. He was an active member of the Rotary Club since 1916, where he served as Vice President, President (1939-40) and a member of the Board of Directors not less than ten times. He also served San Antonio on the City Public Service Board of Trustees and was honored to serve as Chairman for three consecutive terms. He served on St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Vestry for 15 years in alternate 3-year terms and at one time he was Jr. Warden. He was a Mason since 1922, where he held positions of responsibility in the York Rite and Scottish Rite Bodies and was awarded 33rd degree in 1945.
Simpson married Miss Mary Althorpe Spencer of Galveston in 1915 and they had three children. The first, Willard E. Simpson, Jr., obtained his undergraduate from Texas A & M College of Civil Engineering and was a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before returning to San Antonio to work with his father. The second, Radcliffe Simpson, graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and eventually was killed in
action in France during World War II. The third, Robert Simpson, died from leukemia at the age of six.
Willard Eastman Simpson died in 1967 at the age of 84. At the time of his death, the W.E. Simpson Company was operating as a partnership between himself, his son, W.E. Simpson Jr., and Manfred Gerhardt. W.E. Simpson has many distinguished contributions to the field of Structural Engineering and will be remembered as a loving family man, a lifelong learner, a civic leader, and a pioneer in the profession of engineering.
References:
1) Engineering in San Antonio’s History, by H. Douglas Steadman, P.E., 2000. 2) The History of W.E. Simpson Company, by H. Douglas Steadman.
3) Notes About Willard E. Simpson, provided by H. Douglas Steadman, 1954.
4) Engineering Legends: Great American Civil Engineers, by Richard G. Weingardt, P.E., 2005. 5) Houston’s Texas Commerce Bank Building (Previously known as the Gulf Building), by
