Professor Takaaki Kagawa celebrated in life

Former colleagues and students gathered Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 21, at McGregor Conference Center on campus to remember a quiet civil engineering professor who led by example and remained dedicated to his teaching and earthquake research to the end.

Takaaki Kagawa, a 19-year WSU Civil and Environmental Engineering associate professor, died Oct. 24 in Tokyo, Japan at the age of 58 after a long fight with liver cancer.

His wife, Katsumi, eldest son, Wataru, and youngest son, Shinji, traveled from Japan to attend the gathering and attend to affairs related to his death. Although his family and colleagues were aware he was being treated for cancer, his death came as a surprise, Waturu Kagawa said, "because he tried to make us feel optimistic that he was getting better."
Colleagues and students who spoke of Kagawa Wednesday described a man of few words but high standards and principles, well known and respected in the scientific community for his work in geo-technical earthquake engineering. "I was amazed at how many people knew him," said Xian Tao, PhdCEE'00, who studied under Kagawa from 1996 to 2000, referring to an international conference the two once attended.

Kagawa set an example to all students on how to dedicate themselves to their work, and to be organized. She described how Kagawa hired her as a research assistant when she first arrived from China, and gently taught her the importance of attention to detail and organization while working on the sequencing models so important to his studies on structural behavior response to earthquakes.

His attention to detail and rigor extended to the classroom as well. "Anyone who took Dr. Kagawa's course would be challenged by the depth and sophistication he presented," said Mumtaz Usmen, chair of civil and environmental engineering.

Kagawa was a private person, Usmen continued, "who wouldn't talk about things too much" but was nevertheless a great communicator because of his ability to listen. "There was no question in your mind when you spoke to Takaaki that he was 100 percent focused on what you were saying. He never gave you an impression that he had other things more important than what you were talking about."

Kagawa's total dedication included the mission and goals of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, said Usmen, who related the time about seven years ago when he asked Kagawa to develop a new course in information technology in construction engineering, a field that quite suddenly became in demand by students. "The next thing I noticed was that he not only developed the course, but created an outstanding one with glowing reviews from his students."
Kagawa was born in Nara, Japan on May 12, 1947. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1970, and earned his master's of science and Phd from the University of California at Berkley where he studied under the late Professor Harry Seed. Seed's pioneering research in earthquake science led to the understanding of ground response during earthquakes that is the basis of present-day seismic design around the world.

Prior to joining the WSU Civil and Environmental Engineering Department in 1976, Kagawa worked as a research scientist at the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention in Ibaraki, Japan, from 1970 to 1976. It was there he established a life-long relationship with fellow researcher Chikahiro Minowa. The two worked on earthquake studies using the world's largest 'shake' table, a standard tool scientists use to test the liquification of soil under earthquake conditions.

Minowa traveled from Japan to Wayne State to be at the memorial gathering for his long-time friend and collaborator.

On a table at the back of the room Wednesday, his students had spread his research papers and course material representing his voluminous body of work. On another table, someone had placed a vase of flowers and propped up a framed photo of him and Katsumi taken at an earlier leisurely time.

Wataru Kagawa is a biochemist in Japan. He wife remained at home with their two-year-old son. He never preached his principles, Wataru said. "Instead, we grew up following his actions."