Goble Rausche Likins Scholarship

The Goble Rausche Likins Scholarship Fund was established in October 2020 with a generous donation from GRL Engineers, Inc. (GRL) and Pile Dynamics, Inc. (PDI).

The fund honors George G. Goble, Frank Rausche and Garland E. Likins, the founders of GRL and PDI. The fund provides scholarships to full-time undergraduate or graduate civil engineering, electrical engineering and computer science students attending any accredited college or university in the United States, and who demonstrate prior employment, co-op or intern experience with a civil engineering application.

This scholarship has a dedicated application. See Application Instructions for details.

George G. Goble, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE

George Gordon Goble was the founder of GRL Engineers and Pile Dynamics, which emerged from a research program he directed on dynamic pile testing in the 1960s-1970s. He received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Idaho and Ph.D. from the University of Washington, spending a year on a Fulbright scholarship at the Technische Hochschule of Stuttgart (Germany). He became professor and chairman of the departments of civil engineering at both Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and University of Colorado (Boulder). He remained in academia and consulting until his retirement, authoring 125+ technical papers where he tirelessly promoted QA for the deep foundations industry. Dr. Goble passed away in September 2017.

Frank Rausche, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE

Frank Rausche was president of GRL Engineers from 1977 to 2011 and a director of Pile Dynamics, where he still is active as a senior consultant. He began his engineering education at the Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart, Germany, and received his Ph.D. in geotechnical engineering from Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, Ohio, where he had been a part of the pioneering research team developing dynamic pile testing methods. He is the author and developer of the CAPWAP® and GRLWEAP programs, holds several patents and has more than 100 papers published in journals and conference proceedings. His work has helped dynamic pile testing analysis become a standard method for deep foundations quality assurance throughout the world.

Garland E. Likins, P.E.

Garland Likins is a principal at Pile Dynamics, serving as its president from 1977-2014. He was a long-time partner in GRL Engineers until 2016 and conducted dynamic pile testing, proving its reliability on numerous projects. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Case Western Reserve University, where he helped develop dynamic pile testing. He directed the research and development at PDI for deep foundation quality assurance instrumentation for driven piles and eventually for drilled and augured piles. Likins promoted testing of deep foundations throughout the world, traveling extensively and turning PDI into a global company. He is a frequent lecturer and has more than 100 published papers. He was the recipient of DFI’s Distinguished Service Award in 2019.

The 2023 Application period is closed. The 2024 Application period will open April 2024.

Goble Rausche Likins
Scholarship Fund Donors

Main Founders
GRL Engineers, Inc.
Pile Dynamics, Inc.
Mohamad Hussein
Garland Likins
Frank Rausche
George Piscsalko
Patrick J Hannigan
Carmelo M. Morgano
Scott D.Webster

Founding Donors
Camilo Alvarez
Travis Coleman
Alex Ryberg
Brent Robinson
Paul T. Brinkerhoff
Susan Roppel
Ryan Allin
Robert Sprenger
Stephen J. Petras
Wayne Dalton
Marty Bixler
Michael Ference
Dean A Cotton
E. Anna Sellontou-Rausche
Brandon Phetteplace
Adrian Rausche
Benjamin White
Mark Rawlings
Liqun Liang