Don is predeceased by his mother and father and survived by his sister, Jane Lax (Werner), of Monchengladbach, Germany, his brother, Fred Treadwell, his former wife, Lujuana Wolfe Treadwell, his daughters, Elizabeth Treadwell, Carol Treadwell (Sondre Skatter), Margaret Minnick (Chris), and his grandchildren, Violet, Veda, Isaac, Ivy, Gemma, Sonja and Anneli.
In 1996, Don returned to Marin County, residing in Sausalito for the final twenty years of his life. During these years, he enjoyed coffee with his Sausalito buddies, breakfast in Sacramento with daughter Margaret and son-in-law Chris, and lunches in the East Bay with daughter Carol and her family. He regularly took road trips to the Pacific Northwest and Southern California to visit dear friends, and traveled to Europe to visit his sister Jane and her husband Werner.
Along with his military and professional careers, Don was a lifelong Cal football fan (even working for many years as the public address announcer’s spotter), lover of roadtrips, and writer of clear, resounding communications.
After earning his PhD, Don returned to Woodward Clyde and later co-founded Geomatrix. In 1988, he founded Treadwell & Associates (later Treadwell & Rollo). Professional highlights include work on a marine outfall in Athens and breakwater restoration in Sines, Portugal, serving on a national technical panel evaluating the long-term performance of the Reef Runway in Honolulu, and countless Bay Area projects involving remediation of contaminated soils, slope stability, and soil analysis for major construction projects such as the 2003 Carquinez Bridge replacement span and the San Francisco Southwest Ocean Outfall. Don is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a Diplomate in Coastal Engineering. In 1983, he received the Arthur M. Wellington Prize, and he was named as Eminent Civil Engineer by the ASCE in 2010.
In 1976, Don received a Doctorate in Civil Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. While studying for his PhD, he worked as a research assistant for NASA on the team that designed a Lunar Soil Penetrometer that was used on one of the last Apollo missions to the moon.
In 1964, Don graduated from the University of Arizona with a BS in Civil Engineering. That same year, he was married to the former Lujuana Rae Wolfe, also of Tucson. Don received a Masters Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Arizona in 1966. He and Lujuana moved back to the Bay Area, settling in Oakland, and Don began work at Woodward Clyde Sherard and Associates. Don and Lujuana had three daughters, Elizabeth, Carol, and Margaret.
During 1960-62, Don served in the US Navy as a boilerman on the USS Noa. The highlight of his Naval service was when, on February 20, 1962, the USS Noa picked up the Friendship 7 capsule carrying John Glenn, which had just splashed down in the Atlantic. Glenn had just become the first American to orbit the Earth and the fifth person in space. Don also served as Shore Patrol when the ship docked in Dublin, Ireland, and enjoyed telling stories of lining up cabs to take unruly shipmates back to the Noa before they caused trouble with the locals.
Donald Duncan Treadwell was born in Oakland, California, in 1941, to Donald Holt Treadwell and the former Elizabeth Jane Bullock. He grew up in Berkeley, where he attended Emerson Elementary School, and Bolinas, where he attended the two-room Bolinas-Stinson School. In 1953, his family moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he entered the 8th grade at Mansfeld Jr. High. He graduated from Tucson High School in 1958.
