HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

Howard W. Emmons, Authority on Fire Safety, Dies at 86

Howard W. Emmons - the Gordon McKay Professor of Mechanical Engineering Emeritus and the Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Engineering Emeritus - died on Nov. 20. He was 86.

Emmons conducted pioneering studies of fire safety in homes and other structures.

By re-creating entire furnished rooms in a laboratory, setting them ablaze, and monitoring the consequences, he documented how combustible materials systematically interact and how fires grow by stages until they rage out of control. The experimental results pushed the prediction of fire behavior out of the realm of badly educated guesswork and into the world of precise mathematical modeling.

Newscasts featuring dramatic film footage from these experiments helped millions of television viewers grasp how swiftly fire can engulf a typical room - and how little time they would have to escape.

Emmons tirelessly pressed for reform of the nation's building and fire codes in the light of scientific knowledge about how materials interact as flammable systems at a time when flammability was inadequately measured by studying individual components. His efforts bore fruit in models such as the constantly evolving Harvard Computer Fire Code (which predicts how fires spread in buildings) and in congressional passage of the 1968 Fire Research and Safety Act.

"It is not possible to properly summarize the magnitude of his unique contributions to the establishment of fire science as a discipline, other than to call him 'Mr. Fire Research,' " the Center for Fire Research observed in a 1983 tribute.

Starting with studies of the chemical and thermodynamic aspects of fire in the 1940s and '50s, Emmons moved on to examine the characteristics of flame and combustion in the 1960s. By the early 1970s, these studies led to his laboratory experiments as director of Harvard's famous Home Fire Project, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Factory Mutual Research and Engineering Corp. (Norwood, Mass.). Working with Factory Mutual, Emmons had individual rooms and even entire houses built to his specifications. These were then set afire to provide data for mathematical modeling.

Emmons served as chair of several prominent boards such as the Fire Research Committee of the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council (1967-70), the National Bureau of Standards Fire Panel (1971-76), and the Evaluation Panel of the National Engineering Laboratory of the National Bureau of Standards (1980-83). Emmons also served on NASA's Advanced Research and Technology Advisory Council (1967-70).

No less active in civic affairs, he chaired the Lincoln-Sudbury (Mass.) School Committee (1954-68) and served as a Sudbury selectman (1969-72).

The Society of Fire Protection Engineers named Emmons "Man of the Year" in 1982. He also held honors from the Stevens Institute of Technology (100th Anniversary Medal, 1970), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (Timoshenko Medal, 1971), and the American Physical Society (Fluid Dynamics Prize, 1982).

Born on Aug. 30, 1912, in Morristown, N.J., Emmons studied at Hoboken's Stevens Institute of Technology, where he earned his Master of Engineering (1933) and Master of Science (1935) degrees. He received his Doctor of Science (1938) from Harvard.

Emmons worked on steam-turbine systems as a research engineer at Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co. (Essington, Penn.; 1937-39) before spending a year as an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1940, he came to Harvard as an assistant professor, rising to the Gordon McKay Professorship in 1949 and gaining the Lawrence chair in 1966.

In 1983, when Emmons retired from both Harvard chairs, the Center for Fire Research (CFR) devoted its annual conference to him, saluting his innovative research and inspiring example as a teacher of global influence. His legacy includes 50 distinguished doctoral students and more than 130 research papers that stand as Òhallmarks of clarity and insight,Ó according to a CFR commemorative booklet.

Emmons leaves a daughter, Beverly of Brooklyn, N.Y.; two sons, Scott of Brooklyn and Keith of Los Gatos, Calif.; and three grandchildren.

A memorial service will take place at the First Parish in Sudbury Center on Sunday, Dec. 20, at 3 p.m. A Harvard memorial service will be announced later.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be sent to the Howard Wilson Emmons Distinguished Scholar Award, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01609.