Memorial

MEMORIAL SECTION

Tom Christensen Memorial

Beloved CaDWR and USACE Co-worker, Mentor, Leader and Colleague. October 4, 1941 to September 17, 2021 “A Life Well Lived”

Tom Christensen, retired senior engineer at the California Department of Water Resources Floodplain Management Branch and the US Army Corps of Engineers Floodplain Planning Section passed away unexpectedly on September 17, 2021, in Sacramento. Tom was 78 years old and remained very active in supporting his church, community, and family. Tom was born and raised in Portland, Oregon and graduated from Walla Walla University in Washington State with a degree in Civil Engineering. He worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers from 1964 through 2000, mostly at the Sacramento District, with a focus on Flood Risk Reduction, Flood Planning, and Floodplain Management projects. Tom retired from the USACE as chief of the Floodplain Planning Section. Tom then began working with California DWR, retiring in 2014 as a senior engineer in the Floodplain Management Branch. Tom’s USACE and DWR careers, which spanned a total of 50 years, had a special focus on Floodplain Management and mapping. At DWR, Tom was instrumental in formulating interagency agreements to advance floodplain mapping projects and activities within DWR, the USACE, FEMA, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the California Geologic Survey. The pinnacle of Tom’s career was the planning and execution of the DWR led Central Valley Floodplain Evaluation and Delineation Project and the Central Valley Hydrology Study that updated digital elevation models, hydrology, and hydraulic profiles for the major streams in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys. The CVFED and CVHS studies supported FEMA mapping, USACE planning and design studies, DWR-led mapping and hydrology, and local agency efforts to improve the urban level of flood protection in the Central Valley. Tom played a key role in managing supportive Engineering Contracts with our colleagues in the private sector to deliver the CVFED project “on-time and on-budget” to support the 2012 and 2017 Central Valley Flood Protection Plans. Tom’s accomplishments and impacts on California FPM are too numerous to mention and he will be remembered by his co-workers, colleagues and agency partners, as a high energy engineer who always acted as a mentor and leader and promoted the advancement of DWR’s and the USACE’s efforts to inform and educate local state, and federal agencies and the public regarding flood risks. Prepared by Tom’s friends and colleagues at the California Department of Water Resources who held him in great admiration for his work ethic.

I-Ming Cheng Memorial

Beloved Ca-DWR Colleague, Friend and FPM Leader.

California DWR retired Floodplain Management senior engineer, I-Ming Cheng passed away in early October 2021 at age 79 surrounded by his family. I-Ming was born In Taiwan where he competed his bachelor of science degree in Civil Engineering. I-Ming received his MS in Civil Engineering from the University of Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research (IIHR) and his doctorate from the University of Utah. I-Ming completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Cornell University in New York. I-Ming worked as a senior engineer at the California Department of Water Resources from 1995 to 2008. With his broad technical experience in both the private and public sector of water resources engineering, I-Ming played a key technical and leadership role in expanding DWR’s floodplain management and floodplain mapping programs after the 1997 Central Valley Flood Event and the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. I-Ming led the Senate Bill 4 Floodplain Mapping Program, oversaw development of interagency floodplain mapping agreements, and the selection and management of A and E contractors to support DWR’s FPM mission. I-Ming played a key role in the Feather River Hydrology, Hydraulic and Floodplain Study conducted in support of the Oroville Dam and Powerplant FERC Relicensing effort. I-Ming also laid the groundwork for DWR’s Central Valley Floodplain Evaluation and Delineation Program. In his 13 years at DWR, I-Ming technical knowledge, dedication to mission, and gentle and quiet nature endeared him to his colleagues. I-Ming loved the ocean and for a short time enjoyed traveling the state with his motorhome. The FPM Branch at DWR was blessed to have I-Ming in our presence for 13 years as a technical expert, friend, and colleague. Prepared in loving memory by I--Ming’s colleagues, Maria Lorenzo Lee and Ricardo Pineda. 33

MEMORIAL SECTION

David Thurman

October 1, 1950 - December 13, 2020

Our friend and colleague David Thurman Ford passed away on December 13, 2020. Through his long, distinguished career, Dr. Ford made numerous lasting contributions to the hydrologic sciences. Dr. Ford was an internationally recognized expert in hydrologic, hydraulic, and water resources engineering, planning, and management, and provided consulting services to local, state, and federal governmental agencies throughout the US and internationally. Over the course of his 45year career, he contributed both theoretical and practical advances in flood warning systems, realtime forecasting and decision-making, reservoir operations, flood risk assessment, river hydraulics, and flood system planning. Dr. Ford earned bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees in civil engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. As a graduate student, Dr. Ford had the good fortune to serve as a research assistant to renowned hydrologic engineer Leo R. Beard, founder of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) in Davis, California. After completing his PhD, Dr. Ford worked for Mr. Beard at HEC for 12 years, bringing operation research methods to reservoir operation decision making. This work led to development of HEC’s HECPRM (Prescriptive Reservoir Model) and other similar applications. From 1990 to 2018, Dr. Ford was President and Principal Engineer at David Ford Consulting Engineers, a small business in Sacramento specializing in flood and floodplain management, including hydrologic engineering and risk analysis. In 2018, the growth of the firm culminated in an acquisition by HDR, a company of more than 10,000 that provides engineering, architecture, environmental, and construction services to clients worldwide. Over the course of his career, Dr. Ford has served as a consultant to the USACE; National Weather Service; California Department of Water Resources (DWR); many local flood control and water agencies in California, Texas, and other states; agencies in India, Portugal, Indonesia, Romania; and for the United Nations, the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and to engineering firms worldwide. Nationally, Dr. Ford led a team to deploy the Corps Water Management System (CWMS) to various USACE district offices. CWMS is a real-time decision support system that expands and enhances the data and information available to USACE water managers. This includes data and information about the current state of watersheds, likely future state of watersheds, and consequences of management actions. The data and information help water managers make wise operation decisions. Dr. Ford has trained thousands of engineers and scientists in hydrologic and hydraulic engineering principles. He was a long standing member and supporter of FMA and his wit and charm, as well as his expertise will be sorely missed.

Bruce Phillips, MS, PE

January 27, 1957 – June 8, 2021

Bruce spent 19 years out of his 40-year engineering career with PACE as Senior Vice President and leader of the Stormwater Management Division. Before PACE, Bruce worked at RBF (now Michael Baker) for 21 years. Bruce was widely known as a leader in stormwater management and consulted with many flood/stormwater agencies, numerous cities, and land developers throughout the western US. One of the many special qualities about him was his breadth of expertise in the stormwater management field, including hydrology, hydraulics, floodplain management, urban stormwater management, river engineering, stormwater quality, etc., and particularly in alluvial fan hydraulics and sediment transport. Additionally, Bruce spent over 30 years as an instructor of advanced hydrology, hydraulics, and sediment transport courses at Cal State Long Beach (and previously UC Irvine and UC Riverside), and he led an annual 8-hour PE review course in hydrology and hydraulics well known throughout Southern California. He undoubtedly has impacted thousands of emerging civil engineers. People would frequently approach Bruce at professional industry conferences and events to say he taught a class they had taken. Each time the feedback was very similar; they learned so much from his classes, he gave them practical information that they regularly apply in their jobs, and that his teaching heavily influenced their decisions to enter the H&H engineering field. Bruce’s professional accomplishments are numerous and wide-reaching. An abbreviated list of these accomplishments includes: • Authored several design manuals for flood control agencies. • Developed important regional and award-winning stormwater management plans and designs such as the County of Orange Watershed Infiltration

Hydromodification Management Plan (WIHMP), the Rancho Mission Viejo Runoff Management Plan (ROMP), and the El Modena Channel (allowing the

Tustin Marketplace development to proceed), just to name a few. • Completed many major flood control projects in the

Coachella Valley, overcoming challenging alluvial fan conditions. • In 2020/21, developed the County of Orange

Standard Plans for Stormwater Quality Basins. • Participated as a question writer and grader for the California Professional Engineer Special Exams (Seismic and Surveying). • Developed/presented well over 100 technical papers/presentations. • Completed physical and numerical modeling for the flood sequence in the movie Dante’s Peak, starring

Pierce Brosman • Developed physical models of challenging hydraulic conditions that were too difficult to analyze with computer modeling alone. • Recognized as Engineer of Merit in the Private Sector by ASCE Orange County in 2017. • Recognized with the Mentorship Award by the

Floodplain Management Association in 2018 If you knew Bruce, you knew that he had an almost unreal work ethic. He was fully committed to his clients, projects, and his teaching. He was in the office every weekend (unless he was out wakeboarding at his home in the desert). If you didn’t see him at the office, you could almost certainly track him down at Los Caballeros Sports Club, where he spent hours each day working out, or at Del Taco picking up one of the many macho-sized iced teas he consumed daily. Nothing Bruce did was anything short of his best effort, and countless people benefited greatly from it. While we mourn the loss of a great leader and mentor, we are also celebrating how lucky we were to have such an inspirational, hard-working, and incredible engineer as a friend and colleague. 35