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T.Y. Lin, renowned structural engineer, remembered
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In
attendance at the January memorial were (left to right) T.Y.
Lin’s daughter Verna Lin-Yee, son Paul Y. Lin, wife
Margaret Lin, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Paul Gray,
and Greg Fenves, CEE chair and the T.Y. and Margaret Lin Professor
of Engineering.
PEG SKORPINSKI PHOTO |
At a January memorial in the Faculty Club’s Great Hall,
about 300 family members, professional colleagues, and friends
of Tung-Yen (T.Y.) Lin celebrated the life and achievements of
the civil engineering professor emeritus whose pioneering work
in prestressed concrete profoundly influenced modern structural
design. Lin died last November at the age of 91.
“We will hear much this afternoon about T.Y.’s prowess
as a builder of bridges and other magnificent structures,”
said Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Paul Gray in addressing
the private gathering. “But I want to speak about a different
kind of bridge that T.Y. built. He crossed chasms of culture,
voids of bitterness, filled in gaps in our ability to understand
and appreciate each other. T.Y.’s life itself was a strong
and mighty bridge.”
Considered one of the greatest and boldest structural engineers
of his time, Lin achieved world renown for combining elegance
and strength in his design projects, such as San Francisco’s
Moscone Convention Center, Taiwan’s Kuan Du Bridge, and
the roof of the National Racetrack in Caracas, Venezuela. He was
also recognized for innovative ideas like the ‘Peace Bridge’
he proposed across the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia.
Born in 1912 in Fuzhou, China, Lin earned his bachelor’s
degree in civil engineering from Jiaotung University. He came
to Berkeley as a graduate student—the College’s first
student directly from China—and earned his master’s
in 1933. He joined the Berkeley faculty in 1946.
Lin’s brothers, Tung Kwang of Los Angeles and Tong Qi of
Boston, and his cousin T.H. Lin of Los Angeles attended the event,
which opened with musical selections played by Lin’s two
granddaughters. For information on donations to the T.Y. Lin Fellowship
Fund, please contact the Berkeley Engineering Fund at 510.642.2487.
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