Marshall Lew (M.EERI 1978), a leading geotechnical and earthquake engineer and devoted member of EERI, passed away in April 2025. In nearly five decades of membership, Marshall made many contributions to the Institute. He served on the Board of Directors as Secretary-Treasurer from 2006-2011, and was named an Honorary Member in 2018. He was a founding member and President of the Southern California Regional Chapter, and continued to serve the chapter as its Past President. Just last October, he organized a special tour of SoFi Stadium for chapter members, and contributed this description and photos to the chapter website.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Marshall studied Civil and Structural Engineering at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), completing his B.S. (1972), M.S. (1972) and Ph.D. (1976) there. He studied with C. Martin Duke, Kenneth L. Lee, and Gary C. Hart, who served as his doctoral supervisor. In 2015, he was named the Distinguished Alumnus of UCLA’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department.
Marshall taught engineering for a year at the California State University at Long Beach before moving on to practice at the geotechnical engineering firm LeRoy Crandall and Associates. His career there lasted through a number of mergers and transitions, with the firm ultimately becoming WSP, where he was Senior Vice President. As a practicing engineer, Marshall worked on a long list of prominent engineering projects throughout southern California, among them the 73-story Library Square Tower (at the time the tallest building in the western US), Wilshire Grand Tower (the subsequent holder of that title), the Los Angeles Blue, Green, and Gold Line Metro rail projects, the Silver Lake Reservoir replacement, the San Diego Padres Petco Park Baseball Stadium, and several hospital projects, including the Keck Hospital and the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center. Perhaps his greatest impact, though, was as a mentor and teacher to several generations of younger engineers.
In addition to his service on the EERI Board of Directors and to the Southern California Regional Chapter, Marshall served on EERI’s Technical Seminar Committee and Audit Committee and also chaired the organization of an annual meeting. He was frequently seen at EERI events with his camera in hand, and for many years he documented annual meetings in his role as unofficial photographer. He participated in or led multiple reconnaissance teams for the Learning From Earthquakes (LFE) program, participating in the LFE investigations of the 1999 Taiwan and 2010 Chile earthquakes, serving as a geotechnical lead for LFE reconnaissance after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and leading the LFE team that conducted reconnaissance on the impacts of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China’s Sichuan Province. He wrote this recollection of the Wenchuan reconnaissance mission for LFE’s 50th anniversary in 2023.
Marshall was an active member in many other professional organizations and boards, including the Structural Engineers Association of Southern California, the California Hospital Building Safety Board, the California Strong Motion Instrumentation Advisory Committee, and the Los Angeles Tall Buildings Structural Design Council, which plans to create a student research grant in his name to support studies in earthquake engineering. He is survived by his wife Jenny and his children and grandchildren.
Some recollections from EERI members:
“Marshall's gentle way, his kindness and humility, his profound contributions to engineering, and his decades of steadfast support of EERI will always be with us and guide us. Our friend and colleague will be fondly remembered.” —Farzad Naeim
“He was a gentle and generous supporter of EERI…he always kept EERI's financial well-being foremost in mind and was a delightful and thoughtful source of support.” —Susan Tubbesing
“I also fondly remember all the excellent photos he took at the EERI Annual Meetings. He always seemed to be behind a camera!! I appreciate all the volunteer time and effort he gave to EERI.” —Ellen Rathje
“Marshall was an outstanding colleague. I most recently served with him on the Audit Committee. He was a consummate professional in addition to being kind and thoughtful.” —Lucy Arendt
“We lost a dear friend, leader, and great engineer. He will be missed dearly.” —Craig Davis
“Marshall was a generous and loyal friend to many of us, a wise counselor, and a highly distinguished geotechnical engineer.” —Southern California Regional Chapter Board
Read an obituary by Jon Stewart and Marty Hudson posted by UCLA here.
