The Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) Educational Trust, the charitable arm of DFI, has established a new scholarship. The Goble Rausche Likins Scholarship Fund, established in October 2020, honors founders of GRL Engineers Inc. (GRL) and Pile Dynamics Inc. (PDI).

The fund, named for George G. Goble, Frank Rausche and Garland E. Likins, provides at-large scholarships to full-time undergraduate or graduate civil engineering, electrical engineering and computer science students attending any accredited college or university in the United States. Candidates must demonstrate prior employment, co-op or intern experience with a civil engineering application.

“This scholarship not only seeks to honor the legacy of these pioneers’ transformational work in the deep foundation sciences and industry over the past half century,” says Adrian Rausche, chief financial officer/treasurer of GRL Engineers, “but also to endow their vision to the next generation of engineers so that it remains ever dynamic and unceasing.”

George G. Goble, Ph.D., PE, M.ASCE, was the founder of GRL Engineers and Pile Dynamics, which emerged from a research program he directed on dynamic pile testing in the 1960s-1970s. He received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Idaho, and Ph.D. from the University of Washington, spending a year on a Fulbright scholarship at the Technische Hochschule of Stuttgart (Germany). He became a professor and chairman of the departments of civil engineering at both Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and University of Colorado (Boulder). He remained in academia and consulting until his retirement, authoring 125+ technical papers where he tirelessly promoted quality assurance (QA) for the deep foundations industry. Dr. Goble passed away in September 2017.

Frank Rausche, Ph.D., PE, D.GE, was president of GRL Engineers from 1977 to 2011 and a director of Pile Dynamics, where he still is active as a senior consultant. He began his engineering education at the Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart, Germany, and received his Ph.D. in geotechnical engineering from Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, Ohio, where he had been a part of the pioneering research team developing dynamic pile testing methods. He is the author and developer of the CAPWAP® and GRLWEAP programs, holds several patents and has more than 100 papers published in journals and conference proceedings. His work has helped dynamic pile testing analysis become a standard method for deep foundations quality assurance throughout the world.

Garland E. Likins, PE, is a principal at Pile Dynamics, serving as its president from 1977-2014. He was a long-time partner in GRL Engineers until 2016 and conducted dynamic pile testing, proving its reliability on numerous projects.  He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Case Western Reserve University, where he helped develop dynamic pile testing. He directed the research and development at PDI for deep foundation quality assurance instrumentation for driven piles, and eventually for drilled and augured piles. Likins promoted testing of deep foundations throughout the world, traveling extensively and turning PDI into a global company. He is a frequent lecturer and has more than 100 published papers. He was the recipient of DFI’s Distinguished Service Award in 2019.

The scholarship was made possible with donations from GRL Engineers and Pile Dynamics.

“DFI is extremely thankful for GRL Engineers’ and Pile Dynamics’ support of the DFI Educational Trust,” says Theresa Engler, executive director of DFI. “The future of our industry depends on encouraging promising young engineers to consider careers in the deep foundations construction field. Through the generous support of DFI member companies such as GRL and PDI, the DFI Educational Trust has awarded more than $1,200,000 in scholarships to more than 300 students in fields of study related to the deep foundations industry.”

Donations to the Goble Rausche Likins Scholarship Fund can be made online at www.dfitrust.org.

The DFI Education Trust is an independent non-profit established in 2006 by the DFI to support and encourage study in fields related to the deep foundations industry. It provides scholarships and opportunities to meet and work with leaders in the industry. Find out more at www.dfitrust.org.

The DFI is an international association of contractors, engineers, academics and suppliers in the deep foundations industry with more than 3,500 members worldwide. For more information about the Deep Foundations Institute, visit www.dfi.org.