A Joy for Learning

Alexis Ostapenko, a professor emeritus of structural engineering whose career at Lehigh spanned four decades, died Sept. 26 at 92.

His colleagues admired Ostapenko—or “Dr. O” as many affectionately called him—for his immense intellect and warm spirit. He joined the department of civil and environmental engineering in 1957, following his dissertation defense at MIT, and retired as an active faculty member in 1994, though he continued mentoring graduate students for several years.

He investigated the stability and strength of plate and box girders on bridges, ships and offshore drilling platforms, and the causes of tanker explosions. He won many awards and was widely published, but said once, “I am most proud of my students’ accomplishments and the way they progressed in their positions and found success in their fields.”

One student, Paul Wiedorn ’83, ’85G. worked with Ostapenko on a project related to the interactive design of steel box girders. Wiedorn says the practice is commonplace now, but was very cutting edge at the time.

“He was a tough adviser in the sense that he expected you to work as hard as he did,” Wiedorn says. “But I always had the sense with Dr. Ostapenko that there was real enjoyment in learning new things, both about people and with technical subjects.”

Wiedorn also remembers spending time with Ostapenko in 1984 when they were experimenting with the internet in its earliest form. “At the time, it was mostly connections between a limited number of university networks—well before the World Wide Web,” he says. “Everything was text based—there were no Web addresses, just IP addresses—so I did not see any particular importance to the technology. But he did. He was very excited about the possibilities.”

John W. Fisher, professor emeritus of structural engineering, remembers his colleague’s endearing, one-of-a-kind personality.

“Alex walked everywhere,” Fisher says. “Fritz Lab is seven stories tall, but he refused to take the elevator. As a result, he was in the best shape of anyone in the department by a significant margin.”

Ostapenko was also prodigious when it came to learning new languages, Fisher remembers. Born in Ukraine, he received his early engineering education in Germany before coming to the United States. He taught himself even more languages as a professor at Lehigh in order to better interact with the civil and environmental engineering department’s graduate students from Japan, China and other countries. In all, he spoke seven languages with varying degrees of fluency and dabbled in many others.

Gifts in Ostapenko’s memory may be made to the Alexis Ostapenko Endowed Fellowship, Lehigh University, 27 Memorial Dr. West, Bethlehem, PA 18015. —John Gilpatrick ’10