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Obituary | Louis C. Sutherland | 1926-2016
Louis C. Sutherland, a fellow of the Acoustical Society of Amer- ica (ASA), passed away on Feb- ruary 23, 2016. Lou was one of the longest serving members of the international acoustics com- munity and one of the most pro- lific. In a career lasting over 60 years, his main areas of research involved studies of the human
and structural responses to noise, sonic boom, and blast, but his contributions to the fields of acoustics and vibration have been much more diverse and have included topics such as atmospheric absorption, aircraft noise measurement and modeling, low-frequency noise, classroom acoustics, and acoustic testing.
Lou obtained his education with BS and MS degrees in elec- trical engineering at the University of Washington, includ- ing five years in the Department of Speech designing elec- troacoustic equipment used in speech and hearing research and testing.
Remaining in the northwest, he then worked at the Boeing Company for nine years, solving acoustic and vibration en- vironmental problems for Dyna-Soar and the Saturn C-5 and conducting noise measurements on the first commercial jet aircraft, the Boeing 707.
In the early 1960s, Lou moved to Wyle Laboratories, first in Huntsville, AL, and then in El Segundo, CA, where he spent the next 25 years, becoming Deputy Director and Chief Sci- entist responsible for overall technical direction in the areas of community noise, aircraft/airport noise, vibroacoustics, psychoacoustics, and noise control. One of his major contri- butions in the 1960s was as editor and principal author for a major engineering design manual for National Aeronautics and Space Administration on vibroacoustic environments generated by aircraft and rocket noise on structures, ground equipment, and people.
Lou retired from Wyle in 1989 and set himself up as a consul- tant in acoustics. In the fall of 1997, he was cochair with Da- vid Lubman of the Standards Working Group ANSI S12.42 to develop the first national standard on classroom acous-
tics. Acoustical Performance Criteria, Design Requirements and Guidelines for Schools (ANSI S12.60) was published in 2002. After that, Lou was actively involved in helping pro- mote the application of this standard through workshops, papers before ASA and other associations, and lectures. He wanted to have an impact on reducing the intrusion of noise in people's lives.
Lou was always very active in standards organizations and was honored by professional societies as a Fellow of the ASA and Silver Medalist in Noise, 2002; Associate Editor, The Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 1988-2010; a Fel- low of the Institute of Noise Control Engineering (INCE); President of the INCE, 1995; and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He was the author or coauthor of over 250 reports and papers dur- ing his long career.
Lou was a very special person, friendly, open, and kind to everybody, with never a bad word to say about anyone. His passion was bringing new ideas into the field of acoustics and encouraging young acousticians from all over the world to become active in the ASA.
He is survived by his sons Alan and Paul, his daughter Nan- cy, and their families.
We will miss him.
Selected Articles by Louis C. Sutherland
Sutherland, L. C. (Ed.). (1968) Sonic and Vibration Environments for Ground Facilities: A Design Manual. Wyle Research Report WR 68-2, prepared for the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, under NASA Contract NAS 8-11217.
Sutherland, L. C. (1977). Review of noise propagation in the atmosphere. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 61, 1403-1418.
Sutherland, L. C. (1979). Influence of atmospheric absorption on the propa- gation of bands of noise. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 66, 885-894.
Sutherland, L. C., and Lubman, D. (2004). Education stakeholders and the ANSI standard for school acoustics. Sound and Vibration 38, 12-14.
Written by:
Ben Sharp, Email: bhs940@yahoo.com
Dave Lubman, Email: dlubman@dlacoustics.com Brigitte Schulte-Fortkamp,
Email: b.schulte-fortkamp@tu-berlin.de
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