John E. “Jack” Bower Jr., a structural engineering researcher who held and shared in four patents in a three-decade career with the U.S. Steel Technical Center in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, has died. An ASCE fellow and life member, he was 90.
Bower, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, was the author of more than 30 technical papers published by ASCE and others.
Born in Waukegan, Illinois, in 1935, Bower moved to Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in 1957. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois. While at Notre Dame, he was associate senior football manager for the Fighting Irish.
Following his career at U.S. Steel, in 1986 he joined Lehigh University’s Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems Engineering Research Center, known as ATLSS, as deputy director. The center’s systems-oriented mission and studies all phases of construction. He retired in 2004, settling with his wife in North Carolina.
