“I became an engineer.”

     Thus begins John Hersey’s 1956 novel, A Single Pebble, in which the narrator travels to pre-revolutionary China seeking a site for a dam along the Yangtze River. As he encounters a civilization little changed since the Middle Ages, the young man finds his faith in technology giving way to awe and self-doubt.

     I, too, became an engineer and have spent my professional life in the construction industry, albeit in less dramatic settings than the chasms of the Yangtze, and with less pessimistic feelings about my profession than Mr. Hersey’s.

     I also became a writer, author of seven books and several hundred articles, papers, reviews and speeches.  My main topic of interest has been engineering, and more broadly the relationship of technology to the general culture.

    The purpose of this web site is to preserve and organize information about my writing — mostly my published writing. Continue Reading…