On April 21, 1967, a violent tornado struck Marshall’s hometown of Oak Lawn, IL. Dr. Ted Fujita at the University of Chicago rated this tornado F4 on his Fujita scale. Marshall was only 9 years old at the time, but immediately became interested in tornadoes, seeing the damage firsthand. Fortunately, his house was about one mile south of the damage path. In the years that followed, he read everything he could find on tornadoes. Then, on May 11, 1970, a high-end tornado struck Lubbock, Texas, and was rated F5 on the Fujita Scale, the highest intensity. Texas Tech Professors Drs. Minor, Mehta, McDonald and Kiesling surveyed the damage, and published their findings. Marshall heard of this tornado event and read an article in “Weatherwise” authored by Dr. Fujita. At that time, he was beginning high school in a suburb of Chicago, IL.
On April 3-4, 1974, the Super Outbreak of tornadoes occurred and once again, Dr. Fujita surveyed the damage. Marshall was just entering college majoring in meteorology at the time. That fall, his local American Meteorology Student Chapter visited the University of Chicago and attended a lecture by Dr. Fujita regarding his preliminary findings from the damage of this event. This was the first time Marshall met Dr. Fujita. At that moment, Marshall knew he wanted to study tornado damage for the rest of his life.
After graduating college with a BS in Meteorology in 1977, Mr. Marshall headed to Texas Tech to begin graduate studies in meteorology under the direction of Dr. Peterson. There, he met Drs. Minor, Mehta, and McDonald in Civil Engineering and worked with them on a tornado intercept project to chase and film tornadoes at close range to study their interaction with buildings. He was wrapping up his graduate studies in meteorology when on June 3,1980, a series of tornadoes struck Grand Island, NE. Dr. McDonald asked Marshall to accompany him on a damage survey and in the course of that survey, Dr. McDonald asked him to pursue civil engineering.
On August 18, 1980, Hurricane Allen struck south of Corpus Christi, Texas. Marshall accompanied Dr. Minor on damage survey of this storm. These events set in motion a lifetime of surveying damage in the wake of tornadoes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. In 1983, after graduating from Texas Tech with an MS degree in Civil Engineering, Marshall went to work for Haag Engineering Company in Dallas, Texas, a forensic firm that assesses damage from disasters. He became a P.E. in 1989. Over his 42-year career with Haag Engineering, Marshall has evaluated damage to more than 40,000 structures.
Mr. Marshall’s past and continued research activities include participating in various scientific field projects sponsored by NSF to include VORTEX2 (2009, 2010), ROTATE (2012), TWIRL (2016, 2017), and ICECHIP. Marshall has published more than 100 papers and has appeared on dozens of TV programs as a storm damage expert.
Marshall McDonald-Mehta Lecture Flyer