E. Montford Fucik - 4/22/2010
Note 8/1/2016 - This text was copied from the MWH website because MWH has recently been bought out by Stantec and the previous link to the MWH website might stop working.
E. Montford Fucik, former Chairman and President of Harza Engineering, dies April 2010
Broomfield, Colo., April 22, 2010 – E. Montford (Ed) Fucik, former Chairman and President of Harza Engineering Company, died April 6, 2010, in Lake Forest, Illinois.
Fucik joined Harza Engineering – a Chicago-based energy, water and infrastructure company- in 1938 as an engineer before serving in World War II. He retired from the United States Navy with the rank of Lieutenant Commander after serving in the Panama Canal Zone. Following his service, he rejoined Harza, ultimately serving as president and chairman of the organization from 1963 through 1979.
Fucik first met Leroy Harza in 1936, while he was a graduate student at Harvard University. They first worked together in on the Santee-Cooper project near Charleston, South Carolina. Following World War II, they formed a partnership, written by hand on a single page of paper, that would become the Harza Engineering Company. It was also the start of their joint life-long commitment to the private practice of civil engineering. Fucik was proud that the top management at Harza was also its principal technical consultants, in addition to being its managers and administrators.
Throughout his career, Fucik was an esteemed member of the engineering industry, actively engaged in the National Academy of Engineering, the Society of Military Engineers (SAME), a past national director of the America Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He was honored as Chairman Emeritus by the National Academy of Engineering in 1974 for leadership in the development of soil mechanics, water resources and hydroelectric engineering. He was also awarded the prestigious Goethals Medal from SAME for pre-eminence in engineering, design or construction. He also was a winner of the ASCE Thomas Fitch Rowland Prize and the Rickey Medal. He was also awarded the Chicago Civil Engineer of the Year and belonged to the Western Society of Engineers, the National Society of Professional Engineers, the Consulting Engineers Council and the United States Committee on Large Dams.
Fucik and Harza Engineering worked on some of the United States’ and the world’s largest and most important dam, hydropower and water resource projects: Bath County in Virginia; Wanapum, Priest Rapids and Mossyrock in Washington State. The Guri in Venezuela and the Tarbela/ Mangla Spillway in Pakistan. Other water management projects included Chicago’s Deep Tunnel and Reservoir and the Rayburn Outlet Works and Powerhouse for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
In 2001, Harza Engineering merged with engineering firm Montgomery Watson. The name was changed to Montgomery Watson Harza, and ultimately shortened to MWH.
“Ed’s dedication and leadership led to Harza Engineering becoming one of the preeminent engineering firms in the world,” said Bob Uhler, MWH chairman and chief executive officer. “His legacy lives on in some of the largest, most complex wet infrastructure projects in the world and this loss is felt by the entire engineering community. “
Born in Chicago, Illinois, on January 25, 1914, Ed Fucik is survived by his wife of 67 years, Margaret Reinig Fucik and a family that includes three children, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
He was proud of being a Professional Engineer. “It’s one thing to have a good idea; it’s another thing to make it work. Engineers have to do both – think and act.”