Ogden Beeman Dies
Ogden Beeman died on January 12 after a long battle with cancer. Friends are invited to a memorial service on Sunday January 20 at 2:00 pm at the First Unitarian Church 1011 SW 12th and Main Street Portland Oregon. There will be a reception afterwards at Huber’s Restaurant 411 SW Third Avenue Portland.
In recent years Ogden overcame a 1977 diagnosis of multiple myeloma but lost his most recent struggle with prostate cancer last Saturday. He leaves his wife of fifty years Charlotte; daughters Harriet and Christie son Peter and four grandchildren as well as many colleagues and friends who held him in high esteem.
Throughout his dredging career Ogden was a critical thinker who complemented his strong technical expertise with an ability to identify and address issues beyond the engineering realm. He began his involvement in the dredging industry after graduating from Stanford University in 1956 with a Civil Engineering degree. Prior to forming Ogden Beeman & Associates he was Chief Waterways Navigation Branch of the Portland District USACE where he oversaw the District’s extensive dredge plant. During his tenure with the Corps he attended the Technical University of Delft Netherlands where he earned his Master’s Degree in Hydraulic Engineering. Here he began a friendship with classmate Jack Nichol and his brother Bob of Moffatt & Nichol. After leaving the Corps he joined the Port of Portland Oregon and in the early 1970’s was responsible there for marine terminal development and operations including the hydraulic Dredge Portland.
He formed Ogden Beeman & Associates in 1976 and over the next 25 years worked on hundreds of port and dredging projects nationally and internationally. Ogden used his exceptional organizational skills and leadership to apply computer technology to dredging project planning design and construction. An early application of this new technology was his used in Vancouver Washington Lake Rehabilitation project where he and colleague Greg Hartman developed dredge production software to aid in that project’s design and construction. He traveled extensively to assignments in Asia and Africa involving dredging navigation channel design and port development. When Parsons Brinckerhoff acquired his firm in 2001 he continued consulting on specific projects including the ongoing expansion of the Panama Canal.
