Daniel W. Urish

Daniel W. Urish
Daniel W. Urish (BS 54)
Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Rhode Island

CEEAA Distinguished Alumni Award, 2014

For an outstanding career as an officer in the United States Navy including Commanding Officer of the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion Forty and the Chief Staff Officer for the Atlantic Seabees, twenty-five years as a university professor including Smithsonian Institute Fellow,

Biography

Director of the University of Rhode Island Environmental Research and Training Center and Department Chair, and civic activities including providing infrastructure support and water supply systems to remote areas in South Vietnam and the Republic of Haiti.

Daniel W. Urish, a native of the cornfields of Illinois, entered the University of Illinois in 1949 as midshipman in the NROTC Scholarship Program. Upon graduation he received a commission in the Civil Engineer Corps of the U.S. Navy. His 21 years in the Navy took him on assignments into every ocean of the world, and from the jungles of Vietnam to the ice of Antarctica. His personal awards include the Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V, Combat Action Ribbon and Vietnam Civic Action Medal. 

Urish retired from active duty with the U.S. Navy in 1975 and went back to school, earning his Ph.D. at the University of Rhode Island in 1978. He then embarked on a career in academia, specializing in environmental research and teaching. He is a professional engineer and hydrogeological consultant working with private engineering companies. Urish’s work in academia and with the engineering community was recognized with the Rhode Island “Engineer of the Year” award in 1994. 

He and his wife, Elizabeth Ann, live in the coastal village of Wickford, Rhode Island, where he continues engineering consulting,  and pursues a “third career” as artist.