Arvid Grant
SEAW Southwest President 1966b. 1920, d. January 18, 2014Born in Latvia in 1920, Arvid Grant studied architecture and engineering there, receiving an honorary doctorate from Riga Technical University. In 1951 he emigrated to the US with his wife Ilga and their daughter Zane, and settled in Olympia.
After working with the Western Bridge Construction firm in Seattle and the Washington State Department of Transportation, he established his engineering practice as Arvid Grant & Associates. His bridge engineering skills and self-taught surveyor and HVAC/mechanical engineering abilities supported his early private practice with clients in Southwest Washington.
His design of the Cle Elum River Bridge received honors from the American Institute of Steel Construction in 1966.
In collaboration with the German firm of Leonhardt & Andra, Arvid Grant & Associates designed the Pasco-Kennewick Intercity Cable Bridge (later known as Ed Hendler Bridge) across the Columbia River, at the time of its 1978 construction the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America, honored by President Ronald Reagan with a Presidential Design Award presented in 1985.His colleague David Goodyear notes, "Arvid believed that bridge engineering was a calling -- one that required lifelong learning and dedication. For Arvid, bridge design was an avocation. He was an old-school engineer who lived for his work. He began each design with a pencil and a blank sheet of paper, first crafting a vision of what the bridge design should be before the numbers constrained the image. ... He was equally proud of his applications with high-strength concrete and the creative bridge designs that dot the landscape of the Northwest."
As a founding member of SEAW Southwest, in 1966 he served as its second President. The Washington Society of Professional Engineers recognized him as Engineer of the Year in 1978.
Posted May 2012, Updated January 2014