Donovan (Don) Jacobs, founder of US consulting engineering firm Jacobs Associates, died Saturday, August 26. He was 91 years old.
Don Jacobs was an industry innovator, inventing the Jacobs Sliding Floor to speed drill-and-blast tunnel construction and designing specialised, custom tunnel equipment for several tunnelling projects. He played a significant role in the development of hydraulic booms for drilling.
Jacobs graduated in 1934 with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering. Employed by Walsh Construction, a heavy engineering contractor in the United States, Jacobs worked on several national tunnelling projects, including Fort Peck Dam Diversion Tunnels in Montana, Inland Dam Diversion Tunnel and spillway shaft in Alabama, Queens Midtown Tunnel under the East River in New York, and the Delaware Aqueduct.
After completing work on the Snowy Mountain (Australia) Hydroelectric project, Don Jacobs left Walsh Construction and returned to San Francisco in August 1955 to start his firm, Jacobs Associates, which became incorporated in December 1956. With the new company, Jacobs worked on a truly international range of tunnelling projects having interests in amongst other countries, Scotland, The Lebanon, Brazil, Australia as well as in his home country, the US.
He was a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering (Australia); a member of the U.S. National Committee on Tunnel Technology; the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers (AIMME); and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE). Recognised by his peers, he won both the Beaver Award for Engineering in 1980 and the Moles Non-member Award in 1981.
