Distinguished Engineer
Hometown: Miller
Civil Engineering ,
After graduation Vern Schaefer obtained a master’s degree in geotechnical engineering at Iowa State and worked as a geotechnical engineer in Lincoln, Nebraska. A yearning for teaching and research took him to Virginia Tech, where he did research on reinforced earth structures and earned a Ph.D. in geotechnical engineering in 1987.
His first academic position was at the University of New Mexico. A longing for the Midwest brought him back to SDSU in 1988. He moved through the ranks and in 1999 he became head of the civil and environmental engineering department. A desire to return to teaching and research took him to Iowa State in 2003. At his retirement in summer 2022 he held the Hoover Chair of Geotechnical Engineering.
Vern’s year as president of the American Society of Civil Engineers student chapter started a career of service to his field, resulting in him receiving the 2021 Wallace Hayward Baker Award from the ASCE Geo-Institute.
While on faculty at SDSU, Vern often served as an announcer or scorer for SDSU wrestling matches. From 1993 to 2002 he was the tournament director for the Warren Williamson/Daktronics Wrestling Open. In 2000 he was the tournament director for the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships at SDSU.
Vern is married to Ruth (Van Sambeek) from Milbank, a SDSU nursing graduate who was a nurse practitioner at the SDSU Student Health Center for many years. They are the parents of three sons, Scott, Michael, and Daniel, and have two grandsons and two granddaughters.