The Northwest Marine community lost a good friend and highly respected consulting engineer on December 29, 2009. Edward (Ed) Carl HAGEMANN passed away in his sleep at his West Seattle home. He was 71 years old.
Ed grew up in Buffalo, NY, and Vancouver, WA. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering from the University of Washington and his Master’s Degree in Naval Architecture from UC Berkeley. In 1962 Ed came back to Seattle to work for W.C. Nickum and Sons. He continued with WCN&S until 1971 when George Nickum and Phil Spaulding merged their two companies to become Nickum & Spaulding Associates. During his years at Nickum’s and later at N&SA Ed served in numerous positions including Chief Naval Architect, Vice President of Engineering, and Chief Hydrodynamicist. When N&SA closed its doors at the end of 1987, he started his own consulting business, Hage-Marine, which he owned and operated for the last 24 years of his life.
Ed remained active in his practice until the day of his death, and was highly regarded worldwide for developing high-performance hulls used in patrol boats, yachts, and passenger ferries and commercial vessels. His hand is evident in the designs of the Alaska state ferry Columbia, the PHM hydrofoil hull for Boeing, the Puget Sound pilot boat, the Catalina Express, the British Columbia ferries Queen of Cowichan and Queen of Alberni, the Golden Gate ferries San Francisco, Sonoma, and Marin, the fireboats Chief Seattle and Moku Ahi, and numerous northwest designed motor yachts and special purpose high speed craft. A master at the theoretical, Ed was equally able to find practical solutions to challenging problems. He loved his career and never lost his fascination with the physics behind the hydrodynamics.
A generous man, both personally and professionally, Ed took pleasure in sharing his knowledge with others in the industry. He was a teacher and mentor to a whole generation of young designers, naval architects, and marine engineers. The family requests that contributions be made in his name to the Rosenblatt Undergraduate Scholarship Fund of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers.
