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Stephen H. Crandall
1920-2013
scholar, noted for the clarity of his lectures: He spoke slowly, but managed to cover plenty of material. While at MIT, he led the transformation of mechanics into an engineering sci- ence, acting as editor of three groundbreaking texts: Random Vibration (1958), An Introduction to the Mechanics of Solids (1959), and Dynamics of Mechanical and Electromechanical Systems (1968). Crandall was a pioneer of random vibrations research, offering the first academic course on the subject in 1958. He co-founded, with the late Patrick Leehey, the in- terdepartmental Acoustics and Vibration Laboratory at MIT in the mid 1960's and subsequently directed that laboratory for 33 years. This laboratory served as the interdepartmental focal point for research and education in acoustics at MIT and attracted a long sequence of students and post-graduate scholars. Crandall published a total of eight books and 160 technical papers.
In the same note mentioned above that was written somewhat late in his life, Crandall reminisced-
"I was fortunate to start my teaching career during World War II. The past half-century has been an exceptional period in American history. Until quite recently it has been a time of continually expanding horizons. In engineering education we made revolutionary changes as we moved to a stronger engi- neering science curriculum. As an enthusiastic proponent of this movement I had the benefit of working with exception- ally able students in the classroom and the laboratory."
Crandall was active in many technical societies. He served as chairman of the Executive Committee of the Applied Me- chanics Division and as vice president of Basic Engineering for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME); he also served as president of the American Academy of Me- chanics. He served as chairman of the U.S. National Commit- tee for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and of the Solid Mechanics Panel of the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. He was also a member of the Board of the International Commission for Acoustics.
Crandall’s professional contributions have been widely recog- nized. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Russian Academy of Engi- neering.
The Acoustical Society of America awarded him the Trent- Crede Medal in 1978, and the American Society of Civil En- gineers awarded him both the Theodore von Karman Medal,
Stephen H. Crandall, a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and a former recipient (1978) of the Society's Trent-Crede Medal passed away on 29 October 2013 in Needham, Massachusetts. He was 92 years old.
Crandall was born in Cebu, in the Philippine Islands,
on December 2, 1920. He began undergraduate studies
at Stevens Institute of Technology in 1936. A note written by Crandall many years later reveals the personal difficulties he experienced during his undergraduate years.
"I have enjoyed better than average health over the last 50 years, but I was not so lucky when I was a student at Stevens. Because of a spinal infection, I spent more time in hospitals than I did in classrooms. I entered Stevens with the class
of '40, then slipped back to the class of '41, and eventually graduated with the class of '42 . Although my attendance in classes was spotty, I did well academically. In those days I was a quick study."
It is quite likely that, by the time Crandall graduated from Stevens, his self-study activities had given him a superb gradu- ate level grounding in the mathematics related to engineering. He graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stevens in 1942, shortly after the U. S.'s entry into World War II. He found employment as a staff member of the Ra- diation Laboratory of MIT and was able to pursue a doctorate while working at the Radiation Laboratory, receiving a Ph.
D. in mathematics in 1946. Shortly thereafter, he joined the Mechanical Engineering faculty at MIT. He was appointed Assistant Professor in 1947, Associate Professor in 1951, Pro- fessor in 1958, and was named Ford Professor of Engineering in 1975. He retired from MIT in 1991 with the title of Ford Professor Emeritus, but continued to teach through 2002.
Across MIT and by his former students and colleagues, scat- tered all over the world (many of whom are active in this So- ciety), Crandall is remembered as an outstanding teacher and
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