James "Jim" C. Webb, a transportation engineer and lifelong, one-man recruiting and public relations advocate for ASCE, has died. He was 87.
A Louisiana native, Webb, P.E., L.S., M.ASCE, served as branch president, section president, chair of the former District 14, and as a member of the national ASCE Board of Direction. He prepared successful proposal applications for two Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement award-winners featuring Louisiana projects: the LOOP project in 1982, and the Luling-Destrehan (Hale Boggs) Mississippi River Bridge nomination in 1984. These awards brought international acclaim to Louisiana.
Over the course of his career and lifetime, Webb advised and encouraged many young civil engineers to both join and become active in ASCE.
Extraordinarily, he was five times retired from the various firms for whom he worked.
Webb began working in New Orleans for the Louisiana Department of Transportation Development as chief of the flood control section; he later transferred with the state agency to Baton Rouge, where he worked on the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port. In time he became director of the public works department in Baton Rouge before heading back to New Orleans to work with the streets department.
He then went to Construction Testing & Engineering Inc. and Meyer, Meyer, LaCroix & Hixson Inc., where he worked utility relocation for the widening of the Huey P. Long Bridge in New Orleans and the John James Audubon Bridge connecting New Roads and St. Francisville.
A resident of Baton Rouge, Webb was born in Westlake, Louisiana. He graduated from Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute in 1962 with a degree in civil engineering. He married his college sweetheart, Jerrie Phillips, in 1959.
He was a loving husband and father and enjoyed traveling and outdoor activities, including camping and sailing. His children and grandchildren remember him as an avid golfer and jack-of-all-trades.
