Geotechnical News • December 2016
19
WASTE GEOTECHNICS
CANADIAN GEOTECHNICAL SOCIETY NEWS
2016 R.F. Legget Medal Award
Acceptance Speech
Professor Richard J. Bathurst
- Royal Military College of
Canada
Note to readers: This article is a
slightly modifed version of the actual
address given by Dr. Bathurst at the
time of receiving his Legget Medal at
GeoVancouver on October 3, 2016.
Mesdames et Messieurs, mes amis
et
Dr. Rowe
. I am truly honoured to
receive the Legget Medal. I thank
Kerry for nominating me, for his kind
words and I thank the nominating
committee for selecting me. I know
that there are many others who are
strong candidates for this award.
I have pondered what to say on this
occasion; particularly as I have sat in
the audience on many occasions over
many years and listened to those who
have gone before me. I remember my
dear friend
Dennis Becker
, who at the
time of his Legget Medal, prefaced his
remarks by admitting that we all like
to receive awards and to be recognized
by our peers. I am no different.
Some of the previous winners have
been my own colleagues and friends
and certainly all have distinguished
themselves with their technical contri-
butions to our geotechnical fraternity
and leadership of our society. To be
counted amongst those who have
received this medal in the past is a
source of great satisfaction for me.
I first heard of Dr. Legget when I was
a youngster living at home in Ottawa.
My father was a civil engineer with
the Federal Government and Chief
Engineer of the Great Lakes. This
brought him into professional contact
with Dr Legget. I have a vivid remem-
ber of my father describing at the din-
ner table his great admiration for Dr
Legget. I wish I had been as lucky to
have met this great man in person.
It would not have been possible for me
to receive this award without having
had much great fortune. I have had
amongst other things opportunity and
mentorship.
Included in the ledger of opportunity
was the luck to have worked at Golder
Associates out of the Mississauga
office for the first three years of my
career and the good fortune to learn at
the knee of
Jack Crooks
,
Victor Mil-
ligan
and
John Seychuk
. This left me
with a research bias towards solving
practical geotechnical problems.
I then had the luck of joining a small
school (The Royal Military College of
Canada) that has allowed me the free-
dom to pursue the research and service
to my profession for which I am being
recognized today.
I have been fortunate to be associated
with Queens University and the Geo-
Engineering Centre at Queens-RMC
which has provided me with a stream
of brilliant graduate students. There is
nothing more satisfying than to come
to work with a whimsical idea and
have a PhD student or post-doc chase
it down to its conclusion. It’s like hav-
ing a room full of spare brains.
The GeoEngineering Centre at
Queen’s-RMC, which includes my
dear friends
Kerry Rowe
,
Greg
Siemens
,
Ian Moore
,
Richard
Brachman
,
Andy Take
and
Nick
Vlachopoulos
, amongst others, has
provided me with an enriched research
environment and great companionship.
I believe that there is no greater colle-
gial group of geotechnical researchers
in the world.
In addition to those mentioned above
I wish to acknowledge
Leo Rothen-
burg
and
Bob Mitchel
who were my
PhD co-supervisors;
Gerry Raymond
at Queen’s and
Peter Jarrett
at RMC,
who introduced me to what was then
the new discipline of geosynthetics.
I am grateful to the father of geosyn-
thetics himself,
J.P. Giroud
, for being
a friend and colleague for more than
two decades. Other individuals who
offered protection and guidance over
the last 36 years at RMC were the late
Wayne Kirk
and two former Princi-
pals -
Drs. Plant
and
Cowan
.
I have had the benefit and friendship
of wonderful international collabora-
tors from Spain (
Ivan Damians
), USA
(
Tony Allen
) and from Japan (
Yoshi
Miyata
). These collaborations con-
tinue and are an example of just one
reason why each day I look forward
to coming to work. For others who
are not mentioned here, but who have
impacted my professional career, I
apologize on the grounds of brevity.
Behind every successful geotechnical
engineer there is a supportive partner.
In my case, it is my smart, beautiful
and exotic wife
Hana
. She has been
fabulous company on this journey
and has done much to civilize me. At
the same time I wish to acknowledge
my daughter
Lauren
who has been a
great source of pride to me and who
is now embarking on her professional
career. I hope she has the pleasure and
satisfaction that I have had the fortune
to enjoy.
In closing, I wish to say again, that
I am very honoured to receive the
Legget Medal. I thank the CGS for
this award and I thank all of you for
sharing this moment with me. Merci
Richard Bathurst
October 3, 2016
Richard J. Bathurst.
