As an innovator in the understanding of structural behavior and a recognized leader in the investigation of structural collapses, Jack Raymond Janney died in Lawrence, Kansas Oct. 9. He was 82.
Born in Alamosa, Colorado, Janney became a Navy pilot during World War II and after the war returned to the University of Colorado where he earned his bachelor's degree in architectural engineering in 1948. Two years later he earned his master's degree in structural engineering and wrote a thesis thesis on prestressed concrete, one of the first comprehensive papers on the subject. The Portland Cement Association hired Janney to conduct research on prestressed concrete at its newly-constructed laboratories in Skokie, Illinois, where he worked from 1950 to 1956.