BY LYNN S. BEEDLE
INGE LYSE was a world leader and pioneer in concrete research and its application to practice and in the organization of groups to accomplish those activities. He was born in Lysebotn in southwest Norway on October 22, 1898. He graduated from the Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH) in Trondheim in 1923, and there he later received his doctor technologie degree in 1937.
In the year of his birth, reinforced concrete was practically unknown. Within his lifetime it was to become one of the predominant structural materials throughout the world, no small part of that due to Inge Lyse.
It was adversity that led him to the United States. Those early days are described best in his own words:
Soon after my graduation from NTH in June 1923 I put in an application for immigration to the USA as there were no jobs available in Norway at that time. A few months later I received my permission and in November I left for Los Angles where I had an uncle who was optimistic about engineering jobs there. I called on the construction division of the Southern California Edison Company for a job. After three or four months I was informed that they had an opening for me as a chairman at the Florence Lake Dam construction. I accepted the job and left immediately for Big Creek.
By the end of 1925 the construction work was nearly completed, so the engineering staff was drastically reduced. The engineer in charge asked if I would be interested in joining an engineering group for the