Memorial to William Irving Gardner1903-1991

CHARLES S. CONTENT Danville, California

COLE R. McCLURE, JR.San Carlos, California

On July 8, 1991, the Geological Society of America lost William I. (Bill) Gardner, an excellent engineering geolo­gist and a very fine person. He will be profoundly missed by his family, friends, and professional associates. Bill was born October 7, 1903, in Napa, California, where his pioneer grandparents had settled. He graduated from high school in Napa and earned his bachelor of science degree in geology from the University of California, College of Mining, Berkeley. In 1935, Bill obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He married a fellow Univer­sity of California graduate, Mercedes Philip. They had two children, Susan and Philip, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Bill’s career in engineering geology began in 1936 when he was hired by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. His first assignment was to oversee the practice of geology applied to the construction of Shasta Dam on the Sacramento River near Redding, California, and Friant Dam under construction on the San Joaquin River near Fresno, California. Upon completion of these projects, Bill became regional geologist for Region II of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. His family moved to Sacra­mento, California, in October 1942, where, as regional geologist, Bill was responsible for super­vising the extensive geologic planning and construction work throughout Region II. Noteworthy hydroelectric and water supply projects involved dams and tunnels for the Trinity River develop­ment, including Trinity and Whiskey town dams, and canals, dams, and tunnels for the Central Valley Project, including Madera Canal, Friant-Kern Canal, Tracy Pumping Plant, Monticello Dam, Cachuma Dam, and Tecolote Tunnel.

In 1963, Bill was named chief geologist for the Bureau of Reclamation and moved to Denver, Colorado. He was responsible for all engineering geology work throughout the Bureau’s widespread area. Bill retired from the Bureau in 1969 and returned to California, where he and Mercedes made their home in Moraga and where Bill established a successful engineering geo­logy consulting service. They were living in Moraga when Mercedes died in April 1991.

Prior to his government service, Gardner worked on geological explorations for Standard Oil Company in California and Venezuela. He also worked for about a year as a junior mining engineer in the Sierra Nevada, California, for the Anaconda Mining Corporation.

Gardner’s consulting practice was concerned mainly with all aspects of geological matters associated with large water-development projects. In general, his objectives included selection of geologically suitable sites for such features as major dams and reservoirs, identification of slide areas or potential slide areas, treatment to stabilize slides and excavation slopes, treatment of foundations for structural design purposes, and consideration of regional seismicity and the potential for reservoir-induced seismicity. His intermittent consulting work from 1949 to 1957 consisted of periods of service to engineering firms to investigate sources and develop ground

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water for irrigation and domestic uses, mainly in Asia. About 800 wells were constructed during these efforts. He also studied engineering geology conditions for a dam in India and a hydro­electric project in the Peruvian Andes.

In 1970, Gardner received the Department of the Interior’s Distinguished Service Award. He was a member of the group of ten geologists that met in Sacramento, California, on June 3, 1957, to organize the California Association of Engineering Geologists (CAEG), which became the forerunner of the Association of Engineering Geologists. He was a registered geologist and certified engineering geologist in California and a registered professional engineer in Colorado, an honorary member and past president of the Association of Engineering Geologists, a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, and an associate editor for Engineering Geology. He was a member of the U.S. National Committee, International Commission on Large Dams, and Inter­national Committee on Irrigation, Drainage and Flood Control, and a member of Sigma Xi.

Bill Gardner was a family man who enjoyed home improvement projects. These projects were frequently interrupted by job-related trips or transfers. He enjoyed family trips to such places as the north coast of California, the Eel River, redwood groves, Tomales Bay, the Trinity Alps, and the Sierras. Photography was among his hobbies, and he had a great collection of col­ored slides taken on his numerous worldwide trips. Bill had a special interest in the various ways that people had devised to move water for home use and irrigation, and his slides included people pumping water by hand or foot, or with the use of animals. He was interested in family history and delighted in talking about his pioneer forebears. He was a great storyteller and liked to tell of his trips with his own parents, especially the trips to Yosemite Valley by horse and wagon (28 days of travel).

Time and space prevent filling the many pages it would require to properly cite Bill’s per­sonal accomplishments. One of Bill’s longtime friends and professional associates said, “In my long association with Bill, I never heard him tell an off-color story or say a derogatory word about anyone. He was a kind, friendly, knowledgeable, and trustworthy man.”

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF W. I. GARDNER1935 Structural study of the Merrimac Batholith, Sierra Nevada, California [Ph.D. dissert.]:

Minneapolis, University of Minnesota.1946 (and Content, C. S.) Montecello Dam site, Yolo-Solano development: Central Valley

Project—California, preliminary geology report: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Region II.------ Applied engineering geology at Shasta Dam, Sacramento River, California [abs.]: Geolog­

ical Society of America Bulletin, v. 57, no. 12, pt. 2, p. 1195-1196.1953 (with Boke, Richard L.) Application of geology in ground-water studies to determine

groundwater reservoir characteristics (California): Israel Research Council Special Publi­cation no. 2, p. 547-553.

1960 Tunnels in the Franciscan formation [abs.]: Berkeley, Calfornia Association of Engineer­ing Geologists, 3rd Annual Meeting, October 14-16, p. 8-9.

1966 (with Poland, Joseph F., Mayuga, M. N., Leps, Thomas, and Saint Amand, Pierre) Symposium—What studies of land subsidence problems should be initiated or further implemented? in Landslides and subsidence (Geologic Hazards Conference, 2nd,Los Angeles, 1965): Sacramento, California Resources Agency, p. 156-169.

1968 Dams and reservoirs in the Pleistocene eolian deposit terrain of Nebraska and Kansas: Proceedings of the 1968 national meeting of the symposium on reservoir leakage and ground water control: Seattle, Washington, Association of Engineering Geologists, p. 22-40.

MEMORIAL TO WILLIAM IRVING GARDNER 47

1969 Dams and reservoirs in Pleistocene-eolian deposit terrain of Nebraska and Kansas: Association of Engineering Geologists Bulletin, v. 6, no. 1, p. 31-44.

------ Seismic events related to newly built reservoirs [abs.]: Geological Society of AmericaAbstracts with Programs for 1969, pt. 7 (Annual Meeting), p. 75-76.

1970 1\innel site investigations—a review, in Yardley, Donald H., ed., Rapid excavation— problems and progress (Proceedings of the tunnel and shaft conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1968): New York, Society of Mining Engineers of AIME, p. 13-23.

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