Scholarship Fund
Grants from the Tilford Fund are intended to recognize and support deserving undergraduate or graduate geology students who are Student Members of the Association of Environmental & Engineering Geologists. The Tilford Fund does not support general and administrative (overhead) costs, technical or scientific consulting fees, or equipment purchase or maintenance costs of an educational institution employing or teaching individuals who receive grants from it.
Norman Ross Tilford, professor of geology at Texas A&M University and executive director of the Association of Engineering Geologists (AEG), died in an airplane accident on Nov. 13, 1997, while flying his Cessna 180 from College Station, Texas. Tilford, who was 62 years old, joined Texas A&M in 1985 with 30 years of international geology experience.
Professor Tilford was en route Nov. 13 to Van Horn, Texas, where he was meeting his students for a field trip. They reported him missing on Nov. 14. Intense searching by the Civil Air Patrol proved unsuccessful, but two hunters found the plane's wreckage on Dec. 13 in a densely wooded area about nine miles west of Johnson City, Texas. Tilford apparently died on impact.
"We have lost a good friend and colleague," says Christopher Mathewson, who is also a professor of geology at Texas A&M. "The engineering geology profession has lost a dedicated servant, Texas A&M University has lost a great teacher, and the Association of Engineering Geologists has lost an outstanding leader."
Tilford was born in Moscow, Kan., On Dec. 14, 1934. He started his engineering geology career working on foundation geology with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Los Angeles. Subsequently, he worked in West Pakistan for the Harza Engineering Company. After he earned his master's degree in geology from Arizona State University in 1966, he worked for the Philadelphia Port Corp. and then joined Ebasco Services Inc. in 1969. Tilford was the company's head geologist when it constructed the Keban Dam in Turkey, one of the largest dams in the world at that time. Beginning in 1975, he served as Ebasco's chief geologist and traveled throughout the United States and the world as a consulting geologist.
As a Texas A&M professor, Tilford was known for his incorporation of real life situations into his classroom teaching and on field trips, Mathewson says. Tilford focused on active tectonics, water resources development, evaluation of geological hazards, and site selection studies.
He was a member of several associations and was particularly active in the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, the U.S. Committee on Large Dams, and AEG, serving as AEG's executive director since last June. AEG gave him its Floyd T. Johnston Service Award in 1992.
2020 – Lauren Herbert, Colorado School of Mines - Masters
2020 – Chad Neptune, California State University, Fresno - Masters
2020 – Mariliis Eensalu, Northern Illinois University - Post-Graduate
2019 – Astrid Garcia
2019 – Judith Avila
2019 – Mathew Ellison
2018 – Kimberly Moore - Graduate
2018 – Emmy Geyman - Undergraduate
2018 – Michael Ferraro - Undergraduate
2017 – Erin Lathrop - Graduate
2017 – Amy Plechacek - Undergraduate
2017 – Anna Stanczyk - Undergraduate
2016 – Anna Katharina Schuh - Junior Undergraduate
2016 – Emily Penolope Anderson-Merritt - Senior Undergraduate
2014 – Sebastian Dirringer - Masters
2014 – Elizabeth Joy Olson - Ph.D.
2013 – Michael McLain - Graduate-Masters
2013 – Lauren Schaefer - Graduate-PhD
2012 – Jerome Varriale - Undergraduate 2nd Place
2012 – Matthew Burnette - Graduate
2011 – Rebecca Springer - Undergraduate
2011 – Evan Keffeler - Masters
2011 – Christopher Madden - PhD
2010 – Nathaniel Swanson - Graduate-Masters
2009 – Anna Brody - Graduate-Masters
2009 – Stephanie Watts - Graduate-PhD
2008 – Theresa Poruznick - Graduate-Masters
2007 – Scott Braunstein - Graduate-Masters
2007 – Christopher Hein - Graduate-PhD
2006 – Nichole Wendlandt - Graduate-Masters
2005 – Conor Watkins - Graduate
2004 – Kathy Goetz Troost - Graduate
2002 – Paula Jo Lemonds - Graduate
2001 – Cal A. Ruleman - Graduate
2001 – Joseph Kula - Graduate-PhD
