The Interviews by Stanley Scott series serves to preserve and make available the valuable unfinished work of Stanley Scott. Scott’s unpublished tape-recorded interviews, which he completed between 1986 and 1993, summed to hundreds of hours of sessions with pioneers in the field of earthquake engineering and thousands of pages of transcripts. These are fascinating accounts of individuals who were present at the beginning of important developments in the field, documenting sometimes little-known facts about this history, and recording their impressions, judgments, and experiences from a personal standpoint. Members of the EERI Oral History Committee have edited the transcripts to produce the Interviews by Stanley Scott manuscripts.
Stanley Scott (1921 - 2002)
Stanley Scott earned a BS at Texas Technological University and an MA in Political Science at the University of Chicago. As a researcher in the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley for three decades, he authored numerous publications on governmental affairs and public policy. He was active in developing seismic safety policy and was a member of the California Seismic Safety Commission from 1975 to 1993, serving as Commission Chair from 1981 to 1983. In recognition of his many contributions, he received the Alfred E. Alquist Award from the Earthquake Safety Foundation in 1990.
Manuscripts
The Interviews by Stanley Scott manuscripts may be read online or downloaded in PDF form via EERI's Digital Library. To access a manuscript, click on the below link to the Digital Library edition and select the download arrow icon. EERI members will need to log in to their member account; non-members may access a free copy by entering their name and email address.
Click on a volume below to view more details about the subject and access the publication.
Donald E. Hudson (1916-1999)
Interviewer: Stanley Scott
Editor: Thalia Anagnos
Donald E. Hudson grew up in Pasadena and earned his BS (1938), MS (1939), and PhD (1942, Mechanical Engineering) from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He joined the faculty of Caltech’s Division of Engineering and Applied Science (1943-1981), where he performed pioneering research in ground motion measurement and analysis, and response of structures to earthquake excitation. He served as the chair of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Southern California (1981-1984) and then returned to Caltech as Professor Emeritus. He was a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and served as president of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering (IAEE). Hudson discusses his teaching and research interests at Caltech, the development of strong motion instruments and vibration generators, the processing and use of strong motion data, his support of the earthquake engineering program at the University of Roorkee, and his public service work with organizations such as UNESCO and IAEE.
James L. Stratta (1920-1994)
Interviewer: Stanley Scott
Editors: Thalia Anagnos, Charles Scawthorn
James (Jim) L. Stratta was a California-based structural engineer and an expert on earthquake resistant structural design. Born in Berkeley and raised in San Francisco, he earned his B.S. Civil Engineering at University of California, Berkeley. During World War II he worked for the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory at Moffett Field. He then worked at Hall and Pregnoff, where he met Albert Simpson, with whom he founded Simpson, Stratta and Associates in 1952. The firm designed large-scale office parks, commercial buildings, and industrial facilities, including the original Intel building and a new headquarters for the National Semiconductor Company in Santa Clara, and was responsible for the design of a master plan for the City of Folsom in 1964. Stratta was also an adjunct professor at the UC Berkeley School of Architecture in the 1950s, and served as president of the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California. He participated in EERI’s post-earthquake reconnaissance programs, including site visits to, the Philippines in 1968 and 1976, Italy 1976 and 1980, Livermore 1980, and Coalinga 1984. He also had a career as a consulting forensic engineer.
Frank E. McClure (1924 - 2004)
Interviewer: Stanley Scott
Editor: Charles Scawthorn
Frank E. McClure, a California structural engineer, earned his civil engineering degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1944 before serving in WWII with the Seabees construction battalions in Okinawa. He later opened his Oakland firm in 1955, working on schools, hospitals, and earthquake retrofits. He investigated seismic damage worldwide and became the University of California’s top engineer in 1976, then senior structural engineer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He was an EERI leader, serving on the Board as Secretary and President. In 1990 he was honored with the Department of Energy's Distinguished Associate Award for his 46 years of work reducing seismic hazards and for his leadership in the field.
