Ronald Hirschfeld, co-founder and form-er president of GEI Consultants, has died of a massive heart attack while teaching at Tufts University in the US. He was 70. Hirschfeld began his career in teaching. He was an associate professor of civil engineering at MIT in 1970, when he decided to form GEI with some colleagues. The firm has grown to employ more than 200 employees at eight offices throughout the US. While Hirschfeld was president he directed more than 500 projects for the company, including the construction of major dams. He is widely credited for furthering the understanding of the stability of rock slopes. His peers came to call him the Renaissance Man for his broad talents as a civil engineer.
