Honorary Member since 2001

B. Frank McCullough was “born of and raised by goodly parents” in Austin, Texas. His father owned a machine shop (which provided chores to young Frank to perform) and sufficient property for the construction of a small store. After stocking the store with supplies, his father made him (at age 14) the proprietor of the store and told him to “see where you can take it.” The experiences Frank gained were great and provided valuable life lessons, with the most important being that you obtain from life what you put into it.

Dr. McCullough built upon that foundation of family values and hard work to earn B.S. and M.S. degrees in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and completed his Ph.D. studies in engineering at the University of California at Berkeley in 1969. Along the way, he gained some of his first pavement engineering experience at the Texas Highway Department, where he pioneered the use of pavement grooving techniques (for improving pavement skid characteristics) and use of “turned down guard rail” for safety.

Dr. McCullough was an Emeritus Professor of Transportation Engineering at The University of Texas – Austin, where he conducted research and taught thousands of students over a period of nearly 50 years. During this time, Professor McCullough was responsible for the conduct of more than 100 research projects concerning a broad range of topics related to Portland cement concrete pavements, asphalt concrete pavements, gravel and low-volume roads, highways, airports, high-speed guideways, and commercial building slabs. He was an early pioneer in the development of project- and network-level pavement management systems for the Texas Highway Department, the U.S. Forest Service, and NCHRP, as well as in the development of mechanistic overlay design concepts. He was also involved with the development and characterization of the properties of various construction materials, which have led to the conduct of projects for developing performance-based specifications. He was instrumental in the development of the 1986/1993 AASHTO Guide for the Design of Pavement Structures, which has a primary tool for pavement design around the world for more than 20 years.

Professor McCullough was also a very active teacher and advisor, having guided more than 100 students to M.S. or Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering. He taught special short and continuing education courses for The University of Texas, the University of Minnesota, the Australian Road Research Board, the South African Road Research Board, the Asociacion Mexicana de Caminos, the Federal Highway Administration, the National Highway Institute, the U.S. Forest Service, and AASHTO.

He served as Director for the Center for Transportation Research at The University of Texas from 1980 to 1999. Under his direction the annual budget of the Center grew from $800,000 per year to approximately $10 million per year. By the time he retired from the position, the Center was engaging in more than 70 research projects each year and was employing more than 300 full- and part-time workers (faculty, professional staff, and graduate and undergraduate students.)

Dr. McCullough was a co-founder of the consulting firm Austin Research Engineers, which specialized in Highway and Airport Engineering. This company eventually expanded to three sites in the U.S. and satellite offices in Brazil and Nigeria. He also advised his son in forming the consulting firm Transtec, and has served as a consultant to the firm since 1993.

Frank lived in the Austin, Texas, USA area with his wife of more than 50 years, Norma Jean. Together, they raised a family of 5 children and were blessed with 12 grandchildren. Having spent most of his life in the Austin area, he maintained close relations with the friends he developed over the years. In fact, many of the friends with whom he graduated high school remained his companions in senior golf matches! He was also very active in his church for more than 50 years in roles ranging from Scout master to high-level positions of administrative and moral responsibility.

B. Frank McCullough passed away on November 26th 2012 at age 78.

Dr. McCullough was named an Honorary Member of ISCP in the Charter Class of 2001. The International Society for Concrete Pavements is proud to recognize Dr. B. Frank McCullough’s contributions as an Honorary Member!

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