DFI Trustee Arturo L. Ressi di Cervia: September 22, 1940 – August 23, 2013
Celebration of Life to be Held September 22, 2013 in East Hampton, NY
DFI Trustee Arturo L. Ressi di Cervia died in New York on August 23, 2013 at the age of 72.
Ressi became a member of DFI in 1990 and a trustee in 2010. As a trustee he offered his experience and intellect in the Institute’s governance. He was recently named the recipient of DFI’s highest award to an individual, the Distinguished Service Award. The annual honor recognizes “individuals who have made exceptionally valuable contributions to the advancement of the deep foundations industry.”
As a young engineer, relatively new to the U.S., he was involved in the design and construction of the innovative slurry wall foundation for the World Trade Center in New York City. That seminal structure withstood the 9/11 disaster and most likely prevented the Hudson River from flooding lower Manhattan.
It was while working on the World Trade Center that Ressi met his wife of 45 years, Carol, whom he was introduced to on a blind date.
Ressi’s roots were in Italy, where he graduated from Bologna University in civil engineering, specializing in soil mechanics. After university, he joined ICOS, an international specialty foundation company, where he was frequently promoted and given increasing responsibility. He became president and owner of ICOS’ international operations, with companies in Hong Kong, Chile, Venezuela, Korea, Singapore and Canada. When Treviicos was established the U.S., he served as president.
Since 2007, Ressi served as special projects executive with the Eastern District of Kiewit and was an independent foundation and geotechnical consultant. His career came full circle when he returned to the World Trade Center to work on the slurry wall extension of the new deep basement to the east.
A preeminent constructor of slurry walls worldwide, Ressi summed up his “Lessons Learned” during his singular career, in the May/June 2013 issue of DFI’s Deep Foundations magazine. He traced the development of “Slurry Walls in the U.S.,” a history of his role in developing and spreading the use of this technology, in the Landmarks issue of Deep Foundations magazine (November/December 2012) of this magazine. He was involved in many landmark projects himself: the deep cut-offs in Manicouagan, Wolf Creek, the New World Center in Hong Kong and other slurry wall projects for subways in the U.S., Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore. He authored several technical papers, frequently lectured at technical seminars and conferences both here and abroad, and held six U.S. patents.
Ressi was a Life Member of the United States Committee of Large Dams; a member of the American Society of Military Engineers; the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); The Moles; a board member of the Deep Foundations Institute; and a member of ADSC.
Ressi was nominated by Engineering News Record for the ENR Man of the Year Award in 1977 and featured in the ENR cover story of April 5, 1979. He was also Recipient of the ASCE’s A. P. Greensfelder Construction Prize in 1980, the ASCE Kapp Foundation Engineering Award in 2012 and the Deep Foundations Institute Distinguished Service Award in 2013.
Ressi spent his spare time with family and friends, fishing and gathering oysters and clams on the East end of Long Island. His survivors include his wife Carol, sons Adeo and Alex and five grandchildren with a sixth on the way.
A Celebration of Arturo’s life will be held on September 22, 2013 from 12 pm to 3pm at East Hampton Point, East Hampton, NY.
A Facebook group has been established at https://www.facebook.com/groups/arturoressi, where friends and family can share stories, photos and videos of Arturo.