Lionel LeRoy Crandall

LIONEL LeROY “BUZZ” CRANDALL, 94, passed away peacefully on April 3, 2011 in Marina del Rey, CA. He was born in Portland, OR on February 4, 1917 and was raised in San Diego, CA. He attended San Diego State and went on to UC Berkeley, receiving his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering in 1941. He married Eileen Exnicios on September 20, 1941 and moved to La Canada, CA in 1950 where they lived for 25 years raising four children. They moved to Marina del Rey in 1975.

LeRoy earned the highest honor of the Boy Scouts of America, Eagle Scout, at the age of 15. He was a long-standing member of the Jonathan Club, served on the Board of the Los Angeles YMCA and was a fifty-year member of Rotary International. He was an accomplished Geotechnical Engineer, founding LeRoy Crandall and Associates in 1954. LeRoy was a widely recognized geotechnical authority pioneering the use of tied-back shoring in southern California. The LeRoy Crandall Geotechnical Laboratory at USC was created in 1994.

In 1972, LeRoy was awarded the George Washington Award, “Engineer of the Year,” from the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering. In 1976, he received the Distinguished Service Award of the California Civil Engineers and Land Surveyors. He received the ASCE Martin S. Kapp Foundation Engineering Award in 1982 and an achievement award from the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce in 1983. In 1984, LeRoy was elected to Honorary Membership in the ASCE. He was heavily involved with SELSOC and served on the Board of Directors of the EERI, ASCE and ACEC. LeRoy was instrumental in the establishment of the ASCE Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering. He was an early supporter of the California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program and was appointed to the California Seismic Safety Commission by Gov. Jerry Brown and reappointed by Gov. Ronald Reagan.

LeRoy was preceded in death by his wife of nearly 70 years, Eileen Crandall; daughter, Sally Weideman; and grandson, Michael Eagen, Jr. He is survived by his daughter, Carol and husband Kenneth Upchurch of Itasca, TX; son, David and wife Donna Crandall of Los Angeles, CA; daughter, Gloria and husband Thomas Homewood of Las Vegas, NV; son-in-law, Arthur Weideman of Pahrump, NV; grandchildren, Coy and Kerry Upchurch, Jennifer Crandall, Kelly and Jamie Eagen; nine great grandchildren; nieces and nephews; and his many associates and friends. As he requested, there will be no memorial service.

Arrangements under the direction of Gates, Kingsley & Gates Smith Salsbury Funeral Directors, Culver City, CA.