Jerry Chase
Leadership in teaching excellence and quality management in construction
Inducted: 2015
Jerry was born in 1934 in Glendale, California. One year after his graduation in 1952 from Santa Monica high school he received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He graduated from there in 1957 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Upon returning from his first assignment in Korea he received an offer to attend graduate school at the University of Illinois. He chose a two-year program which led to master’s degrees in nuclear and civil engineering. It was there that he met and married Sally in 1962.
After a variety of assignments which included Ecuador and Vietnam and various Army posts in the U.S., Jerry retired from the Army in 1977 as a Lieutenant Colonel. He then joined the faculty of the Construction Engineering program. He taught and advised for 19 years. During that time, he earned his PhD in Civil Engineering and served as the head of the Construction Engineering program for several years. He loved teaching and advising. He also pioneered the introduction of Quality Management instruction into the program. He conducted several seminars for Iowa contractors, and he lectured on Quality Management in Construction to many contractors and contractor groups at various sites in the U.S. At the request of the Associated General Contractors, he wrote the AGC manual “Implementing Total Quality Management in a Construction company”. Jerry retired from ISU in 1996.
Within the Ames community, Jerry has volunteered with Youth and Shelter Services, Habitat for Humanity of Central Iowa, Food at First, and the Boys and Girls Club where he teaches and plays cribbage with the kids. He was also a member of the Ames Noon Kiwanis Club. He and Sally also helped deliver Meals on Wheels on selected Saturdays.
Jerry continued to interface with the Con E program, visiting faculty and students and attending Con E functions. Chuck Jahren and Jerry jointly sponsored the “Jerry Chase Scholarship” for Con E students.