James Amrhein

James E. Amrhein was an American civil engineer and structural engineer who served as the executive director of the Masonry Institute of America as such he wrote most of the handbooks on masonry engineering, installation, and inspection.

Biography

Amrhein was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 5, 1923 to Joseph and Kunigunda Amrhein and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School before earning his BCE at Manhattan College and his MCE at Columbia University, graduating as a member of Tau Beta Pi and Chi Epsilon.

Amrhein worked as a supervising structural engineer at the Portland Cement Association before joining the Masonry Institute of America, winning the Steven B. Barnes Award for his research on “Tall Slender Wall Performance.” He was also a professor at the California State University at Long Beach from 1961 to 1988. He died on May 22, 2011 and is buried in the Riverside National Cemetery.