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Geotechnical News December 2010
IN MEMORIAM
where he graduated first with aM.A. Sc.
in Civil Engineering (water resources)
in 1968 and followed this with a Ph.D
in Civil Engineering in 1972.
Dr. Hoare’s doctoral thesis is titled
“The Disposal of Mine Tailings Mate-
rial”. It is one of the first of its kind in
that it covers the overall management
of tailings storage facilities in the min-
ing industry. It combines his practical
experience with theoretical principles
which have virtually all become recog-
nized as essential to the planning, de-
sign, operation and closure of tailings
facilities in a safe, environmentally
acceptable, and efficient manner. He
recognized at an early stage the impor-
tance of management of both natural
and process-affected water associated
with such facilities, as well as the en-
gineering and chemical characteristics
of tailings solids deposited hydrauli-
cally. His research included geotechni-
cal investigations of existing tailings
deposits in-situ as well as laboratory
testing to determine properties such as
gradation, permeability, strength and
consolidation. It also advanced the ap-
plication of geotechnology to design of
tailings storage facilities.
Following this second period of
studies, Dr. Hoare joined the Federal
Energy Resources and Mines Depart-
ment in Ottawa and worked on Manu-
als of special value to the mining in-
dustry. His expertise became widely
sought after as a consultant and in 1976
he formed the company Mine Tailings
International Ltd. whose clients includ-
ed mining companies across Canada,
in the United States, and in various
countries abroad such as Chile, Brazil
and Guyana. Dr. Hoare stressed the im-
portance of inspecting tailings opera-
tions first-hand and meeting with mine
representatives and designers. Because
of his varied career, he had an easy rap-
port with both groups. He made pre-
sentations on tailings-related topics to
regulatory and mining organizations in
Canada and the U.S.A., and was known
for his integrity, experience, engineer-
ing judgement, and particularly for his
ability as a mentor.
Bert is survived by his wife Eveline
Elizabeth Hoare of Pembroke, ON, and
his siblings William Hoare and Sheila
Thomson of Ottawa, ON and Alicia
Brown, of Fort St. John, B.C.
Dennis E. Netherton, P.Eng. and
M.A.J. (Fred) Matich, P.Eng.
Jerry Yamamuro
1954-2010
Jerry Yamamuro died on August 18,
2010, just short of 56 years old, after
having suffered from diabetes and
associated diseases for many years.
Following his Bachelor’s degree in
Civil Engineering from Oregon State
University, Jerry worked for nine years
as a civil engineer for the Forest Ser-
vice in Oregon. He came to UCLA as
a graduate student in the area of Struc-
tures, in which his background was
excellent, and he took the majority of
graduate courses offered in Structures
at UCLA. However, he developed an
interest in and also took all the gradu-
ate courses Geotechnical Engineering.
For the M.S.-degree he designed and
assembled an automated high pressure
triaxial loading system consisting of a
100 ton loading machine with a 10,000
psi (67 MPa) triaxial cell. This project
succeeded only with the help of Jerry’s
expertise, tenacity, and hard work. Jer-
ry put together the equipment, built the
necessary electronic converters, wrote
all the control programs, made it work,
and explained it all in his M.S. thesis.
This equipment was used for his
Ph.D.-research to study the stress-
strain behavior and the conditions for
instability of granular materials at high
pressures. He conducted a program of
carefully performed and well thought
out experiments that resulted in con-
siderable insight into the behavior of
granular materials at high pressures.
He moved to the Johns Hopkins
University in Baltimore in July of
1993. One of the discoveries made at
the time was that liquefaction of granu-
lar materials is initiated due to a con-
dition of instability inside the failure
surface. This resulted in renewed inter-
est in liquefaction, and after coming to
Hopkins, Jerry carried out a program
of research to study liquefaction un-
der static loading conditions. New and
very surprising findings emerged from
these experiments, namely that lique-
faction is a low pressure phenomenon
and that loose silty sands exhibit ‘re-
verse’ stress-strain behavior due to its
high compressibility.
Jerry was hired from July 1, 1995 in
the Department of Civil and Environ-
mental Engineering at Clarkson Uni-
versity. He continued his stellar perfor-
mance there: He received a CAREER
grant from NSF to continue the studies
of static liquefaction. Over the years
he obtained most of his research fund-
ing from NSF and AFOSR. He also
demonstrated his ability to teach well,
and he was very much liked by the stu-
dents. He received a teaching award for
his performance in the undergraduate
foundation engineering course in 1996,
and he was recipient of the Albert D.
Merrill Award as the Outstanding Civil
and Environmental Engineering Fac-
ulty in 1997-1998.
Jerry was an enthusiastic individual
whose interest, hard work, and con-
siderable skills in experimental and
analytical research served him well.
He was a competent and thorough re-
searcher who could synthesize knowl-
edge from a variety of sources, and he
was highly motivated, dependable, and
hard working. Jerry authored or co-
authored over 40 journal papers and 40
conference papers, some of which are
still to be published.
Jerry is survived by his two broth-
ers, Nick and Bob, and his sister, Lin-
da, and her husband, Ronald, and their
two daughters, Jana and Kira, and a
former wife, Betsy.
