Adrian “Ray” Ramond Chamberlain, an influential transportation engineer in many top-level positions including Colorado State University president, Colorado Department of Transportation executive director, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials president, and vice president of Parsons Brinckerhoff, among others, has died. He was 94.
Chamberlain, Ph.D., P.E., NAE, M.ASCE, earned the first doctoral degree awarded by the Colorado Agricultural and Mechanical College, now Colorado State University, in 1955. After a Fulbright fellowship at the University of Grenoble, France, he returned to CAM as associate professor and manager of civil engineering research for its college of engineering.
A series of promotions saw Chamberlain climb to executive vice president of the university in 1966, and on July 1, 1969, he became CSU’s ninth president. Under his leadership, the university revised its master plan, took significant steps to address affirmative action, expanded opportunities for women and underrepresented students, and bolstered its research programs. He was elected based on academic achievements to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006.
In 1987, Chamberlain was appointed executive director of the Colorado Department of Highways. During his six years, he saw the agency reorganized into the present-day Colorado DOT.
Chamberlain was an ASCE life member. As AASHTO’s 81st president, he called for enactment of surface transportation reauthorization legislation and urged enhancement of transportation research. He also sought increased leadership in a broad range of environmental issues, development of domestic freight policy, and encouraged more professionals to pursue transportation careers.
Not long after becoming AASHTO president, he was among those who joined President George H.W. Bush at the signing of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, the largest restructuring of surface transportation programs since the Interstate Highway System in 1956.
After stepping down as executive director of Colorado DOT, Chamberlain continued his involvement in transportation in various leadership roles, including in the American Trucking Associations Foundation and as vice president of the engineering and design firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, today part of WSP USA.
In later years he served as chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Chemamagnetics, a Fort Collins, Colorado-based manufacturer of magnetic resonance spectometers. He was also executive vice president and director of Simons, Li & Associates, a water resources engineering consulting firm likewise located in Fort Collins.
Chamberlain also chaired a Transportation Research Board review of the federal Intelligent Transportation Systems Standards Program.
Chamberlain grew up in rural Thompsonville, Michigan, earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering from Michigan State University in 1951 and a master’s in irrigation engineering and fluid mechanics at Washington State University in 1952.
He married the love of his life, Melanie, in 1979 and spent much of their 45 years together traveling the globe. Two of his sons had cystic fibrosis, and Chamberlain made it a mission to support research that has significantly advanced treating the disease.
