William A. Nash,Ph.D
William A. Nash, 85, of South Hadley, died May 21, professor emeritus of Civil Engineering, died May 21.Born in Chicago, Ill., he graduated valedictorian of Illinois Institute of Technology in civil and mechanical engineering in 1944. He received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering in 1949 from the University of Michigan.
From 1949-54, he was a research engineer at the Naval Ship Research and Development Center in Washington, D.C. From 1953-57, he served as a structural researcher at Bethesda Naval Institute, where he participated in the deepest recorded, and still classified, naval dive and reverse engineering of recovered Soviet submarines off the coast of Norway.He taught and served as head of mechanical engineering at the University of Florida from 1958-67. He joined Civil Engineering Department in 1967 and retired in 1992.
Throughout his career, he served as a consultant for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, Lockheed International, General Electric and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
