STANLEY T. ROLFE (1934-2023)

BY ROBERT H. DODDS JR.

STANLEY THEODORE ROLFE, a dedicated educator and pioneer in the development and application of fracture mechanics for metallic engineering structures, died on Jan. 23, 2023, in Valley, Nebraska, at age 88.

He was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 7, 1934, the eldest son of Stanley T. Rolfe Sr. and Eunice (née Fike) Rolfe. After moving multiple times throughout his youth, the family settled in Kankakee, Illinois, where Stan met his future wife, Phyllis Ann Williams. They married on Aug. 11, 1956.

Upon graduating from high school in 1951, Stan was accepted into the University of Illinois College of Engineering. However, in February of his senior year, Stan’s father passed away, creating some financial hardship for the family. To make his dreams of college come true, Stan took a summer job with the Illinois Central Railroad as a laborer, then accepted a full-time position with the railroad for one year to save for college.

In 1952 Stan entered the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to study civil engineering, earning B.S. (1956), M.S. (1958), and Ph.D. (1962) degrees. His thesis advisers were William J. Hall (NAE 1968) and William H. Munse. While in school, Stan held a variety of small and large jobs, from short-order cook at the YMCA on campus to treasurer at his fraternity, to offset the costs of room and board. Stan was hardworking and industrious, driven to complete his schooling and reach his goal of becoming an engineer.

After graduation Stan joined the U.S. Steel Applied Research Laboratory in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. He quickly rose through the ranks to become section supervisor of the Mechanical Behavior of Metals in the Navy Division under contract with the U.S. Navy to develop future submarine hull steels. While at U.S. Steel, Stan met John M. Barsom, who would become his lifelong collaborator and close friend. At U.S. Steel, Stan and John developed extensive new experimental data on the behavior of structural and pressure vessel steels subjected to low temperatures, impact, fatigue, and corrosion. At a time when fracture properties for materials were scarce and costly to obtain, they were among the first researchers to reliably connect the simple Charpy V-notch energy to fracture toughness for static and impact loading (KIc,KId) for a range of widely used steels.

In 1969 Stan joined the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Kansas, where he spent the remainder of his professional career. Stan served as department chairman from 1975 to 1998, and also as interim dean of engineering from 2011 to 2012. He held the Ross H. Forney Endowed Professorship and then the Alfred P. Learned Endowed Chair beginning in 1986. He mentored 25 M.S./Ph.D. students while earning multiple awards for research, excellence in teaching, and service. He published more than 100 technical papers with his colleagues and students on the development of fracture control plans, laboratory test development, and correlations among fracture mechanics parameters. His work sponsored by the Pressure Vessel Research Council and the American Iron and Steel Institute in the 1980s explored the rapidly expanding field of nonlinear fracture mechanics. Stan’s efforts focused primarily on test methods for the crack tip opening displacement and associated engineering applications, as well as some of the early work on understanding size effects on elastic-plastic fracture toughness.

Stan and his colleagues were early proponents and developers of fatigue and fracture control design and assessment guidelines for key classes of structures: oil tanker ships for the U.S. Coast Guard in the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline Service, steel highway bridges for the American Association of Highway State Transportation Officials and the Federal Highway Administration, and welded steel ship hulls for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard.

These early efforts in transitioning the theory describing fatigue and fracture in metals into practical engineering plans for fracture control during design and over the lifetime of structures led to the publication in 1977 of Fatigue and Fracture Control in Structures: Applications of Fracture Mechanics (with John M. Barsom; Prentice-Hall). This landmark book at the time combined essential theory on fatigue, fracture, and corrosion with extensive laboratory data on material properties (high- and low-cycle fatigue, static and dynamic fracture, corrosion), all cast into the framework of practical engineering applications. This now classic book in the history of modern fracture mechanics was revised extensively in 1987 to include new research results on nonlinear fracture mechanics and then again in 1999. This book and his many contributions led to Stan’s election to the National Academy of Engineering in 1982.

Over his career, Stan chaired key technical committees on fatigue and fracture performance of structures, including the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ Technical Committee T-14 on Weathering Steel, the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Technical Committee on Fracture and Structural Fatigue, the National Academy of Sciences’ Subcommittee on Metallurgical Studies, and the Pressure Vessel Research Committee on Low Cycle Fatigue. He consulted extensively for state and federal agencies (e.g., U.S. Coast Guard, Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, California and Kansas Departments of Transportation). Stan’s knowledge, practical experience, and strong communication skills were in constant demand by industry, including the Boeing Company, Caterpillar Manufacturing, Standard Oil of California, Rockwell Manufacturing, Armco Steel Corporation, Failure Analysis and Associates, Lincoln Electric, and Brown and Root Construction, among many others. Following the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake, Stan served as a key fracture consultant to the Federal Emergency Management Agency-sponsored SAC Steel Project to investigate and develop mitigation strategies for brittle fracture in welded steel connections.

Stan’s work garnered numerous awards recognizing the significance of his contributions. The American Society of Civil Engineers named him a distinguished member and fellow (2001) and recognized him with an Ernest E. Howard Award (2000) and a shared State-of-the-Art of Civil Engineering Award for service on the Committee on Fatigue and Fracture Reliability (1983). The American Society for Testing and Materials honored him with the Charles B. Dudley Award (2005), Fracture Mechanics Medal (2002), and Sam Tour Award (1971). Finally, the American Iron and Steel Institute honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award (2005) and a Theodore Higgins Lectureship Award (1980).

Those who knew Stan professionally comment on his ever joyful, optimistic outlook on life and work, his eagerness to teach and ability to explain the most complex concepts with clarity, his joy in mentoring students and younger colleagues, and his skills to lead both industry and academic organizations with great success. Above all, he was a good and honest man.

Stan’s kind spirit and likable personality endeared him to many people along the way. Bill Hall, his professor at Illinois, was a longtime friend and mentor. Many saw Stan’s potential and supported him as he pursued his career. In turn, this is how Stan lived his life: to help others achieve their dreams and potential.

Stan is survived by his wife of 67 years, Phyllis, and their three children: David (Brenda) of Dallas, Texas; Pam (Pat) McCarville of Valley, Nebraska; and Kathy (Jeff) Vigil of Minneapolis, Minnesota; 12 grandchildren; and several great-grandchildren.

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The author appreciates input from John M. Barsom and Stan’s daughter Pam McCarville on this tribute.