Edwin G. Burdette

Back to Dougherty Award Winners
Burdette speaking

Edwin G. Burdette

(1934-2018)

Professor Emeritus of civil and environmental engineering

Education

  • B.S. 1957, Agricultural Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
  • M.S. 1961, Civil Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
  • Ph.D. 1969, Civil & Structural Engineering, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Born on a farm outside of Martin, Tennessee, Ed Burdette attended the University of Tennessee at Martin for two years and transferred to UT Knoxville in the fall of 1954. He worked co-op while at Knoxville and graduated in agricultural engineering in March 1957. He and Patsy Hill were married one week after graduation, March 23, 1957. Both returned to UT Knox­ville in the fall of 1958, and Ed became an instructor in civil engineering, receiving his MS degree in civil engineering in June 1961, three months after their first of five children was born. He was named assistant professor of civil engineering beginning September 1961.

In August 1965, he enrolled in the graduate program at the University of Illi­nois in Urbana-Champaign and received his PhD in civil/structural engineering in February 1969. He returned to UT on February 1, 1969, and remained on the faculty until his retirement in 2016, holding the rank of professor since 1974. Burdette’s research has been primarily in two areas: field testing of highway bridges for the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) and test­ing anchors in concrete to support TVA’s nuclear power program. For the work in bridge testing, he and David Goodpasture received the K.B. Woods Award from the National Academy of Science for Best Paper in Design and Construction at the 1972 meeting of the Highway Research Board. Then, in 1984, based primarily on his work in the area of anchor testing, he was named a Chancellor’s Research Scholar at the University Honors Banquet.

Burdette’s primary interest throughout his long career was teaching. He has received numerous teaching awards in the department, college, and university, being named an Engineering College Teaching Fellow twice. On two occasions he received Alumni Outstanding Teaching Awards, and in 2001, he received the University’s Alexander Prize.

Among numerous meaningful honors, Burdette cites five which were particularly meaningful: (1) being granted the first Fred Peebles Professorship in 1981, a title that he held until his retirement in 2016; (2) in 1991, being named University Macebearer, the university’s highest honor; (3) having a Fellowship created in his honor in 1994 by former student Ted Winstead and wife Linda, the Edwin G. and Patsy H. Burdette Fellowship in Structural Engineering, which has grown in value to allow partial support of several graduate students each year; (4) In 2011, having a lab in the new John D. Tickle Engineering Building named in his honor through donations made by several former students and Dayakar and Marie Penumadu; and (5) in 2015, the establishment of the Edwin G. Burdette Professorship in Civil Engineering by virtue of a generous gift from former student Charley Hodges and his wife Lynn.

Burdette’s last day on the faculty was July 31, 2016, more than fifty years after becoming a member of that faculty. He looks back on a career touched and helped by many people, too many to name. But one person stands above all the rest: his wife, Patsy, who not only played the major role in raising their five children, but also through her insistence on striving to be the best one could be. This attitude served as both inspiration and motivation throughout his long career. The impact of Burdette’s presence at UT is deep and unmistakable.