The late John F. Parmer, a founder of SEAOI and its first Executive Director, believed structural engineers should be recognized for their important role in creating our constructed environment.
The John F. Parmer Award is presented to a structural engineer in recognition of outstanding lifelong contributions in the field of structural engineering. This award is presented jointly by SEAOI and the Structural Engineers Foundation. The candidate must be an individual whose distinguished career is acknowledged by his or her peers to be an example of excellence.
About John F. Parmer
John F. Parmer, a structural engineer, was one of the seven founders of SEAOI. In 1965 he, along with Frank Wells and Ken Naslund, came to talk to Nissim Eskenazi and George Ellis about starting a structural engineers association in Illinois. They were joined by Henry Miller and Frank Cooper. Within a very short period of time, SEAOI was founded. John F. Parmer became the first executive director and he, as well as his wife Chris, spent many hours working for SEAOI at 173 W. Madison Street in Chicago.
In the spring of 1977, at age 88, Mr. Parmer’s health began to fail and he found it necessary to retire from SEAOI. In June of that year, SEAOI presented him with an award, the first John F. Parmer Award, for service to the profession. When Mr. Parmer passed away in the fall of 1977, his son, John C. Parmer, and daughter-in-law, Carolyn Noonan Parmer, wanted to remember him by doing something special, on his behalf, for structural engineers. Therefore, in his honor, they presented SEAOI with a check for $500.00 to fund a John F. Parmer Award, honoring a structural engineer whose distinguished career was acknowledged by their peers to be an example of excellence.
The Parmer family continues to support the John F. Parmer Award as they have done for more than 30 years. Both SEAOI and the Structural Engineers Foundation gratefully acknowledge the Parmer family’s longstanding support of the structural engineering profession.
2019
Donald F. Meinheit - Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc.
John F. Parmer Award Recipients
2018 Kenneth D. Price
2017 William Baker
2016 Jay Paul
2015 Ron Klemencic
2014 German R. Gurfinkel
2013 Burton A. Lewis
2012 Ian R. Chin
2011 Robert A. Halvorson
2010 John (Jack) E. Barrett
2009 D. Stanton Korista
2008 Chris Stefanos
2007 Mike Tylk
2006 Charles H. Thornton
2005 John M. Hanson
2004 Ralph S. Peck
2003 Mete A. Sozen
2002 John J. Zils
2001 Chester P. Seiss
2000 Jack Janney
1999 R. Shankar Nair
1998 Kolbjorn Saether
1997 W. Gene Corley
1996 Nissim I. Eskenazi
1995 Clyde N. Baker, Jr.
1994 Eli W. Cohen
1993 Dr. Sidney A. Guralnick
1992 Srinivasa “Hal” Iyengar
1991 Leslie E. Robertson
1990 William J. Hall
1989 Eivind Hognestad
1988 Richard A. Parmelee
1987 Fazlur Rahman Khan (posthumous)
1986 Narbey Kachaturian
1985 Nicholas A. Bilandic
1984 Harry Stavrides
1983 Harold R. Sandberg
1982 Edward S. Hoffman
1981 Walter E. Hanson
1980 Alfred Benesch and Carl Metz
1979 Max Zar
1978 John Gnaedinger