Professor Emeritus Jack B. Humphreys of Maryville, Tennessee, died at age 88 on January 10. He graduated in the last class of old Knoxville High School (1951) and received a BS in Civil Engineering from UT in 1955, when he was also commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Air Force.
Humphreys taught civil engineering at UT in 1955–56 before serving in the Air Force from 1956–59, after which he returned to teaching at UT and also received a MS in civil engineering in 1962.
From 1962–64, he was an assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Humphreys earned his doctorate at Texas A&M University in 1967 with a focus on traffic engineering and highway safety. During his time there, he worked as a research assistant with the Texas Transportation Institute.
He then returned to UT again, serving as a professor of civil engineering until 1992, when he became professor emeritus. In 1972, he served as acting Director of Traffic Engineering for the City of Knoxville. During his tenure at UT, Humphreys either directed or was involved in several major research projects in the area of highway safety and accident causation.
From the late 1960s until 2012 he also served as a forensic engineer, working as a consultant and expert witness in many highway crash investigations and court appearances in more than 40 states. He was a registered professional engineer in several states and a member of the Transportation Research Board, the Institute of Transportation Engineers, and the American Society of Civil Engineers. He was a 1980 Tennessee Tomorrow Professor and was the ASCE Faculty Man of the Year in 1982.
Read his full obituary in the Knoxville News Sentinel.