Obituary DI Dr. techn. Ernst Garber

Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Ernst Garber

29.04.1948 – 23.07.2008

For all who knew him, the founder of our office, Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn Ernst Garber, was unexpectedly and incomprehensibly taken from life by a heart attack at the age of 61. Inconceivable especially because he was full of energy and enthusiasm in the middle of his professional life as a civil engineer.

Ernst Garber was born in Villach on April 29, 1948, the youngest of three children, and spent a beautiful childhood there, characterized not by abundance but by a great deal of freedom and sporting activity. After elementary school in Villach-Lind, he attended the Bundesrealgymnasium Villach.

After graduating from high school, Ernst Garber began studying civil engineering at the Technical University in Graz in the fall of 1966. He was able to complete his studies, which he had to finance at least in part through part-time work and various holiday jobs, in December 1974.

Ernst Garber began his career as a civil engineer in January 1975 as an assistant at the Institute for Soil Mechanics, Rock Mechanics and Foundation Engineering at the Graz University of Technology. This activity lasted until April 1983 under Professors Veder and Brandl, and towards the end of his work at the institute also under Professor Fuchsberger. The crowning achievement of his assistant activity was his doctorate in technical sciences in March 1983 under his supervisor Professor Brandl with a thesis on “The load-bearing and deformation behavior of anchors”.

In addition to the routine work as a university assistant, giving exercises and lectures and supervising students, Ernst Garber was intensively involved in standardization work and had the opportunity to work on interesting projects, such as the construction of the Lannach tank farm and numerous landslides in Styria, a project on the Caspian Sea, and so on. Under Professor Brandl he had the opportunity to participate in the geotechnical supervision of the construction works for the Tauern freeway in the Lieser valley. Here he also had several opportunities for site tests on anchors, which were of great importance for his dissertation. Through Prof. Brandl, Ernst Garber was also involved in the construction of the first highway bridge over the Lavant Valley, the so-called Twimberg Bridge.

Ernst Garber started his independent activity as a civil engineer at the beginning of 1983. Not only the scope of work but also the range of work of his office grew rapidly.

Already during my own assistant time I was a room mate of Ernst Garber for seven years and there I got to know his collegial and cheerful nature. After further years at the technical department and in an engineering office in Salzburg, I came back to Graz in spring 1987, to his already established office, in which I was allowed to participate as a partner from 1988. Further development steps followed and so did the one in 2006, when the partnership was extended to two long-time colleagues, the colleagues Marte and Ruprecht. Thus, in the course of time, the number of employees grew continuously. Dr. Garber has always been committed to good-humored and comradely dealings with us and all fellow human beings, including the family members of his employees.

With his work as a civil engineer, Dr. Garber left significant traces throughout Austria, but also outside of Austria. Many of these traces may not be visible – the lot of those working in civil engineering – but hidden beneath the earth’s surface, for example as bridge foundations or ground improvement measures, but they are permanent. These traces, which are only visible to a small extent, are particularly extensive along the southern highway, in the section between the already mentioned Twimberg bridge and Klagenfurt West.

All those who knew Ernst Garber more closely are grateful to him for the days, months and years spent together. We have lost a professionally competent, sincere and collegial person and will remember him as he was.

– J. Dalmatiner