Henry Petroski was a big fan of failure.
A longtime professor of civil and mechanical engineering at Duke, Petroski liked to tweak the popular “form follows function” axiom, changing it to “form follows failure.” It was in failing, Petroski believed, that so much could be learned.
“Failure is central to engineering,” he told The New York Times, which penned a lengthy profile of the scholar in 2006.
In his 1985 text “To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design,” Petroski examined high-profile engineering failures like the 1981 collapse of two skywalks at a Kansas City hotel where more than 100 people died. He later said he wrote that book to help define precisely what an engineer is.
Petroski came to Duke in 1980. He had already become a prolific writer, developing a common-man voice by breaking down complex topics into easy-to-understand prose. He chose Duke in part because those people interviewing him saw that part of his writing portfolio a professional benefit and not a side hobby.
“They saw them as a plus and not a dilution of my technical work,” he said.
One of Petroski’s most well-known books was his third: “The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance,” which analyzed the ubiquitous writing instrument and its design history.
All along, Petroski also built a storied technical career in scholarly engineering. His research was sponsored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and other organizations. He published more than 75 articles in professional journals, held fellowships and memberships in national academies and other professional organizations, and was the recipient of honorary degrees from six universities.
He died in June 2023. He was 81.