P. Aarne Vesilind (1939-2018), 30 year tenure at Duke

[InSpades]

The Duke engineering alums (circa 1970-2000) surely remember Professor Vesilind fondly. I certainly do. He was a very kind and thoughtful man and he will be missed.

https://www.meaningfulfunerals.net/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?CFID=ba9b553f-8b4a-406f-8c94-d37ea355bc65&CFTOKEN=0&o_id=4606750&fh_id=12966

[BD80]

The Duke engineering alums (circa 1970-2000) surely remember Professor Vesilind fondly. I certainly do. He was a very kind and thoughtful man and he will be missed.

https://www.meaningfulfunerals.net/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?CFID=ba9b553f-8b4a-406f-8c94-d37ea355bc65&CFTOKEN=0&o_id=4606750&fh_id=12966

Wonderful man.

He was a big reason my Engineering degree had an emphasis in Environmental Engineering.

[InSpades]

Did he make you go to a waste water treatment facility over break and give a report on it?

I can't remember entirely what classes I had w/ him but 1 of them was obviously environmental engineering (w/ the above assignment). I believe he also taught our Engineering Communications course as well.

[DU82]

My undergraduate faculty advisor. Loved talking to him; he always had a love for music. A good, fair instructor. A loss to the environmental engineering community, and humanity.

[Highlander]

Did he make you go to a waste water treatment facility over break and give a report on it?

I can't remember entirely what classes I had w/ him but 1 of them was obviously environmental engineering (w/ the above assignment). I believe he also taught our Engineering Communications course as well.

I had the assignment to visit a water treatment plant as well. As luck would have it, the water treatment plant in my hometown was named for a family friend, so I started my slide show (with actual slides, not powerpoint) preso with a picture of me and the man the plant was named for.

Favorite memory was his homework question on nerve gas concentrations. He asked a straightforward question about determining air concentrations for nerve gas and roughly how much you would need to achieve a lethal concentration over X area.

After everyone had turned in our answers, he chastised the ones who answered the question. "Just because you can answer a question, doesn't mean you should." The lesson was knowledge is powerful, and we have to use our engineering knowledge ethically. I have never forgotten that lesson.

He was also a fun guy to be around socially. I remember him making a quip about the other intro to civil engineering class taught by Dr. Petroski, and discussions the department was having on revamping both his and Petroski's class, ostensibly so "you didn't have to spend an entire semester designing paper clips."

RIP.