Thomas M. Murray, renowned as an expert on structural steel design, who established leading structural engineering research labs at the University of Oklahoma and Virginia Tech, and was a distinguished member of ASCE, has died. He was 84.
“As a structural engineer and colleague, Tom was a professional extraordinaire,” said Mark Widdowson, department head of the Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. “Tom gave of himself in the classroom where he shared his insights and experience, and [his] emeritus status did not diminish his commitment to students and faculty.”
Murray, P.E., Ph.D., NAE, F.SEI, Dist.M.ASCE, conducted research that led to significant improvement in the economy and safety of steel-framed buildings, recognized since 2012 with membership in the National Academy of Engineering. He was a professor for 17 years at the University of Oklahoma before joining Virginia Tech in 1987. He spent a year in between as a U.S. Air Force Academy distinguished visiting professor.
Murray led the construction of large laboratories from scratch at Oklahoma and Virginia Tech, the latter into the fifth-largest structural engineering research laboratory in the nation. His research and teaching interests also took in steel connections, serviceability, preengineered building design, and light gauge design.
He formed Structural Engineers Inc., a firm that established his reputation as the “floor vibration guru.” He authored or co-authored more than 200 books, design guides, and papers, 200 research reports, and supervised about 150 graduate student theses and dissertations. Murray traveled the world making more than 250 presentations to structural engineering groups. He shared his expertise with the American Institute of Steel Construction and its specification and manual committees, and the American Iron Institute Specification Committee.
At Virginia Tech, Murray was named the Montague-Betts Professor of Structural Steel Design, and in 2006 he received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia. He retired in 2008 as a professor emeritus.
Murray was a life member of ASCE, and was accorded Distinguished Member status in 2012.
AISC honored Murray extensively, in 1977 with the T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award, with its AISC Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007, and with the AISC Geerhard Haaijer Award for Excellence in Education in 2010.
He graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in 1962, received a master’s degree in civil engineering at Lehigh University and a doctoral degree in engineering mechanics at the University of Kansas. The University of Kansas School of Engineering awarded him its Distinguished Engineering Service Award in 2004.
In 2021, a gift to Virginia Tech from Murray established the Thomas M. Murray Family Junior Faculty Fellowship, which supports teaching and research excellence in the department.
