Gift of Cash
John F. Lenard, P.E., F.ASCE
John Lenard was born in Budapest, Hungary, and was exposed to engineering
at an early age. His father, Dr. Sando Lenard, was an engineer and his
mother, Dr. Lili Lenard, was a neurologist. Mr. Lenard studied at the
Technical University of Budapest and received Dipl.Ing. Degree, an
engineering degree, in 1956. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, John,
along with more than 200,000 Hungarians, fled Hungary to escape from the
communist regime. In January 1957, John came to the United States as a
political refugee.
Upon his arrival, he obtained a junior engineering position with New Haven
Consulting Firm and pursued an M.S. in Civil Engineering from the
University of Connecticut School of Engineering. It was at this time when
Mr. Lenard became a member of the ASCE. After graduation, Mr. Lenard served
as town engineer for the Towns of Trumbull and Branford, Connecticut. After
getting married, he continued his professional career in New York City
where he worked as project engineer for two large, international consulting
engineering firms. His projects included regional water supply plans for
the Southeastern Massachusetts Planning District, the Susquehanna River
Basin, and various Peruvian cities; water treatment plant and distribution
mains for the Saigon Metropolitan Water District in Vietnam; and designed
the water treatment plant in Rabat, Morocco.
He also worked for the Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport water supply,
sanitation, industrial waste, and treatment facilities, and other
industrial wastewater treatment plants throughout the United States.
In 1970, he established Lenard Engineering, Inc. (LEI) in Storrs,
Connecticut. During the firm's early years, LEI provided civil and
environmental engineering services to municipalities, state and federal
agencies, and private concerns. From the very beginning, the
multidiscipline engineering firm grew rapidly because of Mr. Lenard's
background and expertise. LEI quickly became recognized as a leader in the
field of water supply engineering and dam design.
Mr. Lenard has taught engineering at the University of New Haven and the
University of Connecticut. John's wife, Dr. Jean Lucus-Lenard is Professor
Emeritus at the University of Connecticut where she taught molecular and
cell biology.
Mr. Lenard is an ASCE Fellow and recipient of the Edmund Friedman
Professional Recognition Award. In 2008, Mr. Lenard endowed a scholarship
to encourage students to further their civil engineering education with a
focus on water supply or environmental engineering. Mr. Lenard says, "I
firmly believe that the future of ASCE is with the students. When I served
on the student activities and later the scholarship committee, I saw the
need for ASCE to fund student engineering scholarships. I took it upon
myself to endow a scholarship for students to further their civil
engineering education. I hope my fellow ASCE colleagues will also join me
in supporting the next generation of civil engineers."
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