Hanson’s founder reflects
on 50 years
From doodle bugging to bridge design
Crossing the creek in a lumber wagon pulled by a team of horses, Walt Hanson had his first glimpse at bridge engineering. He and his father regularly delivered eggs and cream to town from their farm four miles south of Lyndon, Kan. And there, across Salt Creek, a mile south of town, the state highway department was building a new bridge. Watching that structure develop impressed the young Hanson and decades later, he started his own engineering company that came to be known for bridge design.
His path was directed by high school math and physics teachers who encouraged Walt to consider engineering. So in 1935, Walt sold his pigs and left the family farm to enroll in civil engineering at Kansas State University. He was the first in his family to pursue college.
Walt put himself through college with a variety of jobs. The best one, he said, was as a houseboy for the girls at the Pi Phi house. But not just because of the sorority sisters.
“The housemother favored us over the girls. We had the best of care and food,” Walt said.
Doodle bugging in the west
In 1939, after graduating college, he went to work “doodle bugging” for oil in Texas and Oklahoma. As he explained, doodle bugs are electronic receivers that pick up signals from dynamite charges. They record the time from explosion to the time of return of energy from the rock layer. The information would be used to map underground rock formations in search for oil fields.
Jobs were scarce and he had a loan to pay off from his senior year, so Walt had agreed to foreign travel during the interview.
“I don’t know if I would’ve gotten the job if I hadn’t agreed to go to Burma.”
The seismograph crew moved around a lot, but he never was sent to Burma. Instead he met and married Sue Roling in Oklahoma. The young couple yearned for stability and moved to Kansas City where Walt accepted a job as a draftsman and junior designer.
It was fitting that his first main assignment involved the drafting of plans for a bridge across the Mississippi at Dubuque, Iowa – fitting because many years later, shortly after Walt retired, his own firm was tasked with performing a study for a new bridge at Dubuque.
A few years later, Walt and Sue left Kansas for Illinois. He was invited to the University of Illinois (UIUC) as an instructor and to do part-time studies as a graduate student.
A year later, in the fall of 1943, Walt enlisted to serve as an airborne radar officer in the U.S. Navy. After a year of education in electronics at Princeton and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he was assigned to Air Group 88 in the Pacific. In September 1945, he was assigned to Barberry Point Naval Air Station near Honolulu to train the new night fighter pilots. The war ended shortly after, but Walt had to wait until February 1946 before he could get on a troop transport ship to San Francisco. His daughter Karen was born while he was overseas. Unlike the instant communication methods troops utilize today to keep in touch with their families, Walt said it was a month before he knew if he had a boy or a girl.
Co-authored “Foundation Engineering”
He returned to UIUC to finish his master’s degree and to become an associate professor of civil engineering. Along with Ralph Peck and Tom Thornburn, Walt co-authored the textbook “Foundation Engineering” that has been translated into numerous languages and dialects. The 2nd edition is still being used by practicing engineers and students throughout the world.
It was at UIUC where he said he faced his toughest decision, harder than the decision to launch his own company. He learned that the chief bridge engineer for the Illinois Highway Department was retiring and that there would be an opening in Springfield. The time had come for Walt to decide whether to stay in academics or return to practice. The decision was tough because he enjoyed his students and he had won awards for effective teaching. On the other hand, he enjoyed engineering practice. So the family moved to Springfield in 1951 and Walt became engineer of bridge and traffic structures for the state. Under his general direction, the first highway bridges using welded steel girders and prestressed concrete beams were designed and constructed, and modern methods of soil investigations were introduced.
The next turning point came a few years later when his college roommate, Bruce Roberts, contacted him from Salina, Kan. Bruce had served in the military and then went to work at Wilson Co., where he was a senior partner in the firm.
“He called and asked, ‘Walt, are you going to stay with the Illinois Highway Department all of your life?’” Walt said Bruce’s firm had just signed a contract for the design of the Kansas Turnpike from Wichita to the Oklahoma line containing 56 bridges and wanted Walt to come work for them.
New firm founded
Instead of uprooting his family to Kansas, Walt suggested breaking away from his job and organizing his own small firm. He knew there were three to four structural engineers in Springfield who could help design bridges and he would be able to come to Kansas for several months to work with Wilson & Co.’s engineers for the assignment.
In October 1954, following a meeting in Kansas City in August with the officers of Wilson & Co., W.E. Hanson and Associates was formed, a partnership with Walt, Dean Collins and Mark Rice. Dean and Mark had been Walt’s students at UIUC. From October to April, they worked day and night to design those 56 bridges and grade separations.
“After it was all over, we were glad we had done it. But after it was all over, we had to start promoting our work in Illinois,” Walt said.
“We were recognized as good bridge designers. We subcontracted to other firms who had contracts for roadwork, and so on. In 1960, it became evident that although we were doing well, the three of us didn’t see the future through the same eyes. I wanted to diversify, to get into more than bridge design. I was interested in buildings, superstructures and especially substructures. We decided to divide the work-in-progress into thirds, and we would each interview all the employees, tell them what we were doing and let them decide their future. It worked out fine for all three of the original partners, as there was lots of new work coming in. The interstate highway program was just developing and we all had lots of bridges to design.”
The firm branched out beyond transportation and Walt said he doubts any firm has inspected, designed and repaired more small dams across the state.
Hanson diversifies
As the firm diversified, work with AT&T led to the establishment of other projects and contacts throughout the country. Walt’s world-renowned, employee-owned company now has 15 offices across the nation and employs 330 people. At the same time his company was growing, Walt kept a hand in education.
“Education is important to me simply because I’ve been in education and in practice. There are too many barriers between the academic and professional world.”
“I’d like to see more cooperation and partnering between the academic and the practice world. It should be done.”
Although he’s now retired and observing the 50th anniversary of his firm, Walt continues to do his part to break down those barriers. He’s been busy authoring articles, sponsoring engineering scholarships, speaking at university events and encouraging firm management and engineers to participate in educational forums.
He also continues to derive satisfaction from his personal life. “These days, my wife Sue and I gain much pride and satisfaction from three sources. First, the continuing growth and capabilities of the Hanson firm; second, the success of our daughter as CEO of Hanson Information Systems Inc., and last, but far from least, the visits and love of our grand and great-grandchildren.”
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