Remembrances of Grant Anderson

Remembrances of Grant Anderson by Chris Menge

I am very sad to report that Grant Anderson passed away on March 26th peacefully in New Jersey. He will be buried in Concord, MA, next to his beloved wife and life partner, Betsy, who had died suddenly at their home in late 2021.

When I was lucky enough to land my first full-time job at Bolt Beranek & Newman Inc. (BBN) in 1972, Grant had been working there for a few years and was one of BBN’s leads in highway noise analysis among other things. With both of us having physics degrees and classical music backgrounds, we hit it off early. He quickly became my mentor in all things related to highway noise, which soon became considerable, with the emerging legislation that would later become 23 CFR 772. Grant was a great teacher, having recently taught at the Naval Academy, and with a strong interest in acoustics, I was a sponge for the knowledge Grant imparted. I soon learned that Grant was one of the kindest, most thoughtful, and brilliant people I would know.

Grant was also a very skilled clarinetist who played in the Concord, MA community orchestra. We lived in nearby Wayland and he encouraged me, a bass player and my wife, a violinist, to join the orchestra. We did and enjoyed it a lot. Grant’s wife Betsy played piano for the orchestra as well, and they were kind enough to invite Virginia and me to their house in Concord every evening before rehearsal to share Kentucky Fried Chicken dinners with them. It was a great way to get to know them better, and that went on for a couple of years. This was another example of Grant’s kind and generous nature.

BBN was one of the few well-known acoustical consulting firms in the early 1970s, and we received many calls for noise studies. Grant and I collaborated on many proposals and projects throughout the 1970s. For one large Maryland SHA Interstate improvement project, we implemented Grant’s brilliant idea to develop what would be the predecessor to the OPTIMA program for efficiently and cost-effectively designing noise barrier lengths and heights. In 1978, Grant and I presented the “Barrier Cost Reduction Program” at the first meeting of what would become the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB’s) Committee on Transportation-Related Noise and Vibration. Shortly afterward, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) funded a study to integrate that barrier perturbation analysis software with STAMINA, the most recent version of the TSC program. Gracious as he was, Grant encouraged me, at age 30, to lead the development of STAMINA and OPTIMA for FHWA, which in 1982 became the official U.S. highway noise prediction software through the 1990s.

Grant was a regular contributor to and attendee of the TRB conferences and noise committee meetings after its initial formation. Grant also served a term as Chair of the Highway Subcommittee.

After Grant joined me at Harris Miller Miller & Hanson Inc. (HMMH), we collaborated on the Traffic Noise Model (TNM) development for FHWA. Grant managed the project, led the overall design, and wrote the user manual. Also, for the Federal Transit Administration guidance manual, Grant was responsible for many of the mathematical equations, and he developed the concept for the unique criteria that are used nationwide for transit noise impact assessment. Grant was also heavily involved in HMMH’s Air Tour Management work for the National Park Service in the 1990s to help them deal with the growing popularity of helicopter air tours  and the resulting noise effects to visitors on the ground. The project developed dose-response relationships for visitors to several popular National Parks. As the statistician for the project, Grant developed dozens of dose- response curves for different noise metrics to help find the metrics with the best correlation with visitor response. The project resulted in national legislation that allowed the Park Service to manage the flight corridors to minimize the disturbance and audibility of air tour noise to visitors seeking “natural quiet.”

After retiring from HMMH in 2007, Grant continued to consult independently. With his TNM knowledge, he made significant contributions to the study that produced TRB’s NCHRP Report 791, “Supplemental Guidance on the Application of FHWA’s Traffic Noise Model.”

Throughout his life and career, Grant brought thoughtfulness, brilliance, skill, and patience to all who interacted with him and all his endeavors. He will be missed.