Remembering Dr. Wendell Mueller (1941-2009)

Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Please share your stories of Dr. Mueller by e-mailing the Department (ceedept@cecs.pdx.edu). Please include your name and relationship to Dr. Mueller. Stories will be posted to this page and will be incorporated into the Department's memorial service on October 15th at 6pm in room 238 of the Smith Memorial Union. Thank you.

Follow this link to view the Oregonian obituary: http://obits.oregonlive.com/obituaries/oregon/obituary.aspx?n=wendelin-henry-mueller&pid=129602756

If you wish you may make a donation in memory of Dr. Mueller to the PSU Foundation. Please select the iSTAR Lab fund under the College of Engineering and Computer Science, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and note "in memory of Dr. Mueller."

Dr. Scott Wells, CEE Department Chair

"To say that Dr. Mueller will be missed greatly is truly an understatement. Even after his supposed retirement, he continually brought externally funded research projects to the iSTAR laboratory and supported many graduate students. Before his retirement I envied his success in recruiting teams of new graduate students – he had the knack. His warm manner and his humorous jokes always seemed to break the ice and allow for good communication with other faculty, students and staff. We will miss his fishing stories."

This story comes from Graig Spolek, a faculty member in the Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department and a long-time friend of Wendell.

Later in life, Wendell took up fly fishing.  Knowing that I, too, liked to fly fish, he would often stop by my office or catch me in the hallway to talk fly fishing.  With the same detail he used in his professional work, he wanted to learn everything that he could to help him become better.  We talked about what kinds of rods work best, what leader materials to use, knots, flies, places to go, how to wade rivers, everything.  Ordinarily he was seeking information from me because he viewed me as an experienced fly fisher.  Then one day he stopped by all full of excitement and glee.  He had discovered a new product that he felt was the best thing ever developed for us fly fishermen, and he wanted to share his find with me.  He was absolutely bubbling as he told me about his brand new waders that had a zipper.

Submitted by Robert L. Bertini, faculty member and colleague in Civil and Environmental Engineering

"In Fairness..."

Over the years I sought Wendell’s opinion about many things, and I could always count on him to help me see the “other” side of an issue. I would typically go to Wendell’s office with some kind of complaint or in some mild outrage about something, and Wendell would always start by saying: “in fairness…” followed by an explanation of why I should look at the other side of my argument. He said “in fairness...” so many times that it is burned into my brain. I think he has helped me understand the value of understanding the opposite viewpoint and this has helped me give the other party the benefit of the doubt. I find this to be an incredibly useful and fair-minded approach for working through problems and frustrations. I think this is a tribute to the fact that Wendell lived his life trying to be fair to other people, and what better legacy could there be. I thank Wendell’s family for sharing him with us and I miss him greatly.

Marcia Fischer, Assistant Dean for Enrollment and Outreach, Maseeh College of Engineering & Computer Science

I remember during the my early years with the College, Wendell making sure that the STAR lab (as it was then called) was available to groups of visiting students.  I don't recall him ever saying "no" to requests,  he made sure that one of the faculty or students was on hand to do a demo and spend time with visitors.

Arnold Wagner, student and friend of Dr. Mueller

It was 1973, I was an engineering student at Portland State University just starting my Masters program and there was a new Professor of Structural Engineering named Wendell Mueller.  As we got to know each other it became apparent that we had many similar interests.  We both liked to spend time in the out of doors, especially in the Mt. Hood National Forest.  We started doing a few things, going on firewood trips, or just running the back roads.  That was the start of a friendship 36 years ago.

I was interested in computer modeling for my Master’s program and Wendell also focused on computer modeling for both his Master’s and PhD programs.  In fact Wendell had developed a computer program that he suggested could be extended in my work (a program based on Matlock’s recursive technique). Further, Wendell was a previous winner of a fellowship sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction and encouraged me to apply. We won the fellowship so Wendell not only became my technical mentor but also was instrumental in helping me to fund my time as a student.

These details are just the beginning of the things that I owe my gratitude to Wendell and his family.  For all of my adult life Wendell has always been there as an instructor, advisor, counselor and friend.  He has just always been there, willing to listen, offering solid advice, and always positive.  As we would discuss an issue he would often talk about “working the problem”.  He just had a way of taking an issue and figuring out some course of action, i.e., something we could try to do.  When things got difficult he would quote Winston Churchill who (in the dark days of WWII) said something like “sometimes doing our best is not good enough, sometimes we must do what is required”.

I want to thank again Elizabeth, Beth, and Wendell IV (little Wendell) for allowing me to be a part of their family activities.  Thank you for all the good times and memories, … and know that every time I drive up through Estacada for fishing or just for a drive I’ll always see Wendell in his Blue & White Jeep pickup and always remember the many many ways he has blessed my life.

Gary and Diane Dyhouse of St. Louis, MO

I first met Wendy Mueller in August of 1965 at the University of Missouri at Rolla. We were graduate assistants, sharing a large office with several other graduate assistants, teaching under-graduate subjects in civil engineering. He was just starting his Master’s degree program, while I was finishing mine up. We only had one semester together, but within the first week, we had become friends, probably because opposites attract. I was rather laid back and passive and Wendy certainly was not. It worked out well because I had the TV and the popcorn maker in my apartment and Wendy had the beer in his. We would get together a couple of nights per week to watch a favorite TV show or two. We would also hit the driving range to practice some golf shots. We needed the practice because neither of us was any good.

Wendy was engaged to Elizabeth at the time and they fixed me up with a couple of blind dates. The first one didn’t last very long, but the second one has lasted over forty years. My wife and Elizabeth were best friends in kindergarten and early in grade school. Elizabeth worked hard to get my future wife, Diane, to accept a blind date with me. My future wife resisted for several months because she thought that I would be just like Wendy. At that time Wendy loved to argue and had an opinion (the correct one, of course) about everything. His favorite expression then was…”Don’t tell me, I know!!”. My first date with my future wife was a double date with Wendy and Elizabeth just after Christmas, 1965. Wendy and Diane spent much of the evening arguing with each other over just about any subject, while Elizabeth and I looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders. If Wendy said black, my wife said white. Despite the debates, the four of us remained friends and continued to have double dates and numerous outings together. I was a groomsman at Wendy and Elizabeth’s wedding in August, 1966. We still remember seeing them off for Washington State in their red Corvair (Wendy liked it spite of Ralph Nader’s dire warnings) with a canoe strapped on top. They camped all the way to Seattle. Later, when they moved back to St. Louis for Wendy to pursue his doctorate, he was my best man at Diane and my wedding in September, 1968. Elizabeth was a bridesmaid. You can see them in our wedding portrait. Elizabeth is fourth from the left, while Wendy is standing next to my bride and I. Wendy was always ready for a joke, so he talked me into short-circuiting the groom’s garter through by tossing it to him. You can see his lunging grab in the other picture from our wedding.

When Wendy and Elizabeth moved to Oregon later in the 70s, our contacts were mainly through Christmas cards and emails. Unfortunately, we never met in person again, as they never returned to St. Louis and we never made it to Oregon. Diane and I were totally shocked by Wendy’s sudden and unexpected death. It seems only a few years ago that we working together at the University of Missouri-Rolla and double-dating with our future wives. Wendy was an unforgettable character and friend. Diane and I are sorry his life ended so early. We  value the time we spent with him and will always be grateful for he and Elizabeth introducing us.

H. Chik M. Erzurumlu, Dean Emeritus and Professor of Civil Engineering, Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science

In 1973, PSU was finally allowed to change the name of its Applied Science Department to "Applied Science and Engineering". This action made us eligible to apply for ECPD accreditation (the former name of ABET). But ECPD required a minimum of three full-time faculty members for a program to be accredited. At that time, we only had two in structural engineering; Dr. Rad and myself. In 1974, with the addition of Dr. Mueller to the departmental faculty, we applied for ECPD accreditation in Structural Engineering, and PSU got its first ECPD-accredited engineering program. This was the glorious beginning of the CEE department, and Dr. Mueller was one of its founding fathers.

Dave O'Claire, Dr. Mueller's last supervisor at BPA and one of his students and advisees (graduated with MSCE in 2004)

I met Dr. M when I worked for Microflect between 1997 and 2001.  I was introduced to him as the "doughnut guy" since he always brought doughnuts when he visited us down in Salem to discuss our tower analysis program "SS Tower".  I got to know him a little better when Microflect contracted with PSU to do some tower flange testing - I was able to spend some time down in the STAR lab with him and his team.  Eventually, however, I decided it was time to move on from Microflect so I started sending out a few resumes.  I ended up sending one to a company that, unbeknownst to me, contracted with BPA for engineering services.  My resume quickly made it to Dr. M's desk and he called me that day, at work, with all my co-workers in close proximity and said, "I didn't know you were looking for a job!"  Well, I asked him if I could call him at home that night and the rest is history - I have been with BPA ever since. 

Shortly after coming to BPA, I decided it was time to buckle down and finish my master's degree (I had taken a few classes while working at Microflect).  I asked him to serve as my advisor and I began taking classes and working on a few research projects.  After two and a half long years, I finally was able to graduate; I remember plenty of gentle prodding from Dr. M especially regarding my various research projects and papers for which he was advising me.  After 2004 I worked in various engineering positions at BPA and then, in April 2009, I returned to the structural group as the supervisor.  Things had come full circle as I was now Dr. M's boss - how strange was that!   The role reversal was short-lived however, as I was only supervisor for two and a half months when Dr. M passed away.  We'll miss him here at BPA. 

Gary Sick, student

One of my favorite stories is about a task I was working on which involved adding some rudimentary calculations to a spreadsheet program related to our ongoing research. Personal computers were very new at this time and did not have graphical user interfaces as they have now and many of the interactions with the computer required entering rather arcane commands at command prompt. In this particular case I was attempting to copy a region of spreadsheet calculations from one place to another. I asked a fellow graduate student whom I shared the office with "How do you copy calculations?" He responded "I think the command is called 'reproduce'. Here's the manual maybe you can find its documentation". I proceeded to do so and found some references to the command and continued on my task of trying to copy these calculations only to become very frustrated when the command did not seem to work as documented. At about this point Dr. Mueller came in to the office to retrieve some reference material from a bookshelf and once he found what he was looking for he turned to leave the office and as he did so he looked over my way and said "You sound frustrated.  What's wrong?" In great exasperation I exclaimed "How do you reproduce?!" Without skipping a beat Dr. Mueller replied "Ask your mother" and out the door he went. Within seconds my fellow graduate student was clutching his ribs and nearly rolling on the floor in laughter as I inquired with a very confused look "Huh ... What did he say?"

Pah Chen, ASME Fellow and Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Portland State University

We miss Wendell greatly.   His children and my children were school mates at Clackamas High School.   Wendell and I retired at the same year, 2003.   

Here I would like to provide same samples of Wendell's lighter side:

As a longtime colleague and friend of Wendell on the PSU faculty, I will remember him as a fine gentleman, educator, and professional.  His students would definitely say the same, but also remember the funny Halloween costumes he'd wear to lecture - once as Captain Cook complete with eye-patch and sword!

Wendell was also a financial wizard, often offering free advice and generous opinions on the latest market trends and investment strategies.  As a well-supported BPA employee in parallel with his faculty appointment, Wendell never let any of us forget how much contract fundings he was bringing in to PSU from BPA.  He had a way of communicating the numbers, too: always reminding us of the cumulative total!  His research in transmission tower design was impressive and I was very happy for him.

Rupa Purasinghe, Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering, California State University at Los Angeles

I was very saddened by the news of my M.S. thesis advisor Dr. Mueller's death. When I was a student, the PSU Structures lab was a primitive one. Over the years I have visited Wendelin and PSU many times and each time the Structures Lab has gotten better. Today the PSU's iSTAR Lab is a nationally known place for innovative experimentation, thanks to Wendelin's hard work and leadership.

I had the good fortune of visiting and chatting with him last May when I visited PSU. I am just one of his students. Like me there are hundreds of others who he was a mentor and a role model. He had truly touched and changed many of our lives.

I will miss an advisor, colleague, and a friend.

Michael Miller, student and co-worker

I can honestly say that Dr. Mueller literally started my career in Civil/Structural Engineering.   

I was attending his undergraduate class on Structural Analysis Methods during the Fall of 1985.   I don’t know how or why, but his teaching style just agreed with me.  I enjoyed the subject, dry as it was, but it was something about how he made it easier for me to understand that drew me in.   His matter of fact style of presenting the various methods of structural analysis made me want to learn more.   Up until that point in my academic life I was average student, getting B’s and the occasional C letter grades.  I remember a specific homework assignment that Fall.  It stands out in my memory like it happened yesterday.  During this time the idea of personal computers were just getting started and I was fortunate enough to have one at my home.   Instead of drawing shear and moment diagrams by hand, which was normal, (I believe it still is), I wrote a computer program that printed the graphs on paper using a printer.   The next week, Dr. Mueller offered be a Research Assistant job in the Structures Lab.  After this bit of encouragement, my outlook greatly improved, as did my grades.  I was inspired. I continued on as a graduate student enjoying the comradeship of all those who worked in the Lab, in the basement of Science Building II.   Many of those friendships, inspired by Dr. M, still last today.

When I graduated and it was time to look for a job outside the walls of the Lab, Dr. M was ready to help with that too.  
I enjoyed almost 20 years at the Bonneville Power Administration, as a Structural Engineer designing transmission towers.  Wendell, who was also employed at the BPA part-time was situated next to me in a cubical the cartoon Dilbert would surely be proud of.   We had many conversations over the cubical partition.   He was always willing to hear what was going on in my life, continued to give words of encouragement and had a willingness to just listen.    He always spoke of his love of the outdoors; camping, fishing, riding his mountain bike and the love of his family.    

I owe a lot to this man, he will be dearly missed.

Gary Sick

I am a former graduate student of Dr. Mueller's and I have another story I wish to share.

I had recommended a movie to Dr.Mueller that I thought he and his wife might enjoy. One Monday morning as my fellow graduate students and myself finished our weekly staff meeting with Dr.Mueller I asked "Dr.  Mueller did you get a chance to see the film?" What did you think?" He looked up, paused for a moment and then very sternly said "I don't like sad endings". Around the conference table there were short giggles and laughs followed by a long, very long silence as we all began to sink in our chairs with the realization that "Whoa he means it. He is serious".

This story has been echoing in my memory over that last few months as I have been struggling to come to terms with the shock of Dr. Mueller's passing. Like many of you I am sad at heart from the loss of my teacher, my mentor, and my friend and yet I feel it important to remind myself that his life is one to be celebrated. Its hard to imagine a more exemplary life than his with respect to what it means to live a good life. A loving father and husband, a loyal friend, a teacher and mentor who helped launch the careers of many students and yes a great number of technical accomplishments as well. We need such examples as his in order to "calibrate our compass" a little as each of us struggle forward with our own lives. I felt very fortunate to have had the opportunity to know Dr. Mueller and will remember him fondly sharing a beer with us, laughing, joking and telling stories often with a wry humorous twist to them.