John P. Gnaedinger
John Gnaedinger was a businessman and a pioneer in soil engineering. He received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Cornell University and then his master’s from Northwestern University. In the 1940’s, Gnaedinger started a company to test soil for building high-rise foundations. His work at the time was referred to as “soil testing,” but today it is known as geotechnical engineering. Gnaedinger was responsible for the foundation work on some of Chicago’s famous downtown buildings, including the John Hancock and Standard Oil buildings. He was also consulted when the subway system in Milan, Italy began having problems. In addition to his contributions to the field of civil engineering, Gnaedinger also founded the Careers for Youth Foundation, an organization that helps inner-city children learn career skills. He died in 2001 at the age of 75. John Gnaedinger was an innovative thinker who was said to be excellent at combining ideas from multiple branches of engineering to come to the ideal solution to a problem.