Lee Geiger

The goal of engineering is to build better mousetraps. The goal of nature is to build better mice.

Unknown

Jim Malley is a nice guy. No, wait a second.

Jim Malley is a really nice guy. Hold on, that’s still not quite right.

Jim Malley is a REALLY, REALLY nice guy. Geez, Geiger, just say what you mean or mean what you say.

Ok, here goes. If there were a Nice Guy Hall of Fame, Jim Malley would be a unanimous, first ballot selection. Boom, nailed it.

The Pretty Blonde and I have known Jim Malley and his wife Jill, the legendary Dog Lady I wrote about years ago, for nearly three decades. Jill and Jim. Jim and Jill. Sounds like a fairytale, doesn’t it? They are, and they are proof that oil and water can mix. Jim is quiet, soft-spoken and unassuming, happy to blend into the nearest wall. Jill, on the other hand, is a high energy former bartender who once pulled off a cartwheel in the middle of restaurant. Jim is a fun guy, and so is Jill, only Jim is fun while Jill is F.U.N!!! We’re grateful to call them friends as well as neighbors.

So why am I writing about Jim? Here’s why. I live in California, which means the odds are good that one day I will experience The Big One, a ground-splitting earthquake sure to rearrange the San Francisco skyline and shift the state’s coastline from Santa Barbara to Fresno. In search of a good laugh, I recently called my Allstate agent and inquired about the cost of earthquake insurance. He delivered a quote of $4,500 for a policy that included a 10% deductible on the cost of repairing my home. That means my house would need to suffer approximately $100,000 worth of damage before I could even begin to cash in on my policy. That’s a lot of damage, and makes sense only if my house were to fall to the ground. What, pray tell, are the odds of that happening?

Paging Jim Malley.

Jim is a UC Berkely-educated engineer with degrees in civil and structural engineering. Since graduation, Jim has been with Degenkolb Engineers in San Francisco, That’s impressive and all, but what you really need to know about Jim is this–he knows seismic. So much so that he was recently elected as a member to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering for his leadership in improving seismic design. The NAE is the Hall of Fame equivalent for engineers who have reached the pinnacle of their profession. In other words, Jim’s kind of a big deal in that world. He and others from his membership class will be honored at a dinner this weekend in Washington, D.C. Elon Musk is also being inducted, but he may be too busy to attend.

I did a little digging on Jim and pulled this from his bio posted on the “Academy of Distinguished Alumni” webpage from UC Berkeley’s Civil and Engineering department.

• Malley has more than 33 years of experience in structural design, seismic evaluations, and seismic strengthening of existing buildings. Of particular note, Mr. Malley has led the design of numerous significant structures in seismic regions, including several major hospitals for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), such as new VA hospital in Las Vegas and the replacement for the VA Palo Alto facility that suffered severe damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Mr. Malley also led the seismic retrofit design of the Caltrans District 4 office building in downtown Oakland, a project that received a “New Innovations in Seismic Strengthening Over the Last Decade” award from the Applied Technology Council in 2009. He also performs peer review for many major West Coast cities for the performance based seismic design of many unique and iconic buildings and structures. For six years, he led a FEMA funded major research effort as Project Director for Topical Investigations of the SAC Steel Program to investigate the damage to steel moment frame connections caused by the 1994 Northridge earthquake. His M. Eng. research under Professor Egor Popov that focused on shear links in eccentrically braced frames led to their receiving the ASCE Raymond C. Reese Research Award. A national expert in steel frame building design, he has served on the AISC Specifications Committee for more than 20 years, becoming its Chair in 2016. He previously served as Chair of the AISC Seismic Design Task Committee for twenty years and has authored dozens of papers on seismic design of structural steel. AISC awarded him a Special Achievement Award in 2000, the AISC T.R. Higgins Lectureship Prize in 2010 and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.

So, if the dirt underneath my house were to one day do the Macarena, Jim has a good idea how my two-story edifice will rock and/or roll. Consequently, when Jim told me that my house, built in 1970, was “bolted down” and that the risk of pancaking in an earthquake was small, I listened. Me and my checkbook have been grateful ever since.

Jim will read this and probably not be too happy with me. He’s not one to toot his own horn or seek the limelight. That being the case, I might as well go all-in. There are three things you need to know about Jim; one, he’s frighteningly smart. About everything. There’s a reason we all shut our traps and lean in when Jim is about to speak. Two, he’s very competitive, particularly with himself. Few slam a golf club into the ground harder than Jim after hitting a less-than-ideal shot. And three, he’s addicted to everything Cal. The man positively bleeds blue and gold. It’s as disturbing as it is admirable.

Congratulations, Jim. We’re all very proud of you and what you’ve achieved in your profession. And you’re a hell of a nice guy.