Accomplished career in public service, an expert in disaster preparedness and response, and a passionate educator
Inducted 2025
Richard Fosse graduated with his bachelor’s in civil engineering in 1982. After graduation, he started his career as an environmental engineer with the Iowa Natural Resources Council. In 1984, he transitioned to the City of Iowa City as a civil engineer and advanced to City Engineer in 5 years. In 2003, Fosse stepped into the role of Public Works Director, becoming responsible for the design, construction, and operations of the city’s infrastructure and associated public services.
Fosse’s role as Public Works Director included leading the city’s response and recovery to various disasters, including the four largest floods of record, a tornado, a derecho, and an enormous landfill fire. The most challenging was the devastating flood of 2008. Fosse and his staff rose to the occasion, coordinating daily with the University of Iowa and other local, state, and federal resources to implement flood fighting strategies. After the flood, Fosse and his staff were central to the lengthy recovery and mitigation process, involving numerous multimillion-dollar projects that were carefully crafted to reduce future vulnerabilities while simultaneously enhancing daily life in the community.
Over the years, Fosse has been an integral part of hundreds of millions of dollars of projects, including a complete rebuild of the city’s water and wastewater plants. Fosse understood that all projects are ultimately built to improve the community and the lives of its residents, which means designers must listen carefully to those who are impacted by their projects. He changed the way his engineers engaged the public by developing protocols to reach out early in the design process, enabling people to give meaningful input, resulting in better designs and residents who feel vested in the outcome. Fosse also recognized his unique role as a Public Works Director in a college town and collaborated with the University of Iowa to improve pedestrian safety and create a vibrant urban environment.
He is an active member and leader in many professional, local, and educational organizations. He is a past president of the Iowa Section of the American Public Works Association (AWPA) and past board member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Fosse also served as the chapter liaison to the APWA Emergency Management Committee and as a member of the Iowa Department of Homeland Security’s First Responders Advisory Committee. He has received numerous awards for his contributions. In 2018, Fosse was selected as one of the Top Ten Public Works Leaders of the Year by APWA—a prestigious national-level honor recognizing the outstanding career service achievements of individual public works professionals from both the public and private sectors throughout North America. He has contributed greatly to the Advisory Boards of the College of Engineering and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Iowa and of the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at Iowa State University.
Fosse retired in 2014, but it only took a year to start a new professional adventure as faculty for the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Iowa (UI). Fosse is the first in their College of Engineering to rise to the rank of Full Professor of Practice. Fosse’s experience and expertise in many disciplines led to teaching five different courses. He also created a new course focused on the design of resilient infrastructure and the roles of engineers in emergency response, the first of its kind offered at Big 10 Schools. Fosse’s teaching has quickly achieved recognition, earning the Excellence in Teaching and Dedication to Student Success award, an honor voted on by the department’s graduating class. Fosse has also earned the UI College of Engineering Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching and awards from ASCE regionally and nationally for outstanding service as a Faculty Advisor.