Dr. William Spillers, distinguished professor and former chairman of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering passed away Tuesday, April 20, 2010. Bill began his career at NJIT as a professor and chairman of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1990 and served in that capacity until June 1998. Prior to joining the NJIT faculty he was a professor of civil engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He received the Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1961.
A pillar of the NJIT university community, Dr. Spillers was an expert in structural mechanics and design theory. He was a registered P.E. in both New York and New Jersey and participated widely in professional activities including the American Society of Civil Engineers, the NSF Foundation Workshop on Computational Foundations of Architectural Design, and the Second International Conference on Civil and Structural Engineering Computing. Professor Spillers was named “Educator of the Year” by the Consulting Engineers Council of New Jersey, received a Guggenheim Fellowship and was a member of both Sigma Xi and Chi Epsilon. During his recent sabbatical leave (2008-2009) he completed a new book entitled Structural Optimization published by Springer-Verlag.
Always very active in every aspect of university life, Bill will be missed by his many students and colleagues not only for his numerous scholarly contributions, but for his sharp wit and never failing sense of humor. He is survived by his wife Joy and his children.
There will be a memorial service for Dr. William Spillers on Wednesday, May 5, 2010 from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Ballroom B, following the NJIT faculty meeting. The Spillers family has requested that donations in Bill’s memory be made to the Breast Cancer Network of Strength charity (http://www.networkofstrength.org/information).
