Joe O'Donovan who has died at the age of 62, was a brilliant engineer who will be remembered most of all for his bridges, including the spectacular Boyne Bridge on the M1 motorway west of Drogheda in Co Louth and the Dargan Bridge that carries the Luas light rail over the Taney Road junction in Dundrum, Dublin.
Together with Dermot Roughan, he founded the highly successful firm of consultant engineers Roughan O'Donovan in 1974, and guided its development over the years as partner, then managing director and finally chairman from 2006 until the day he died after a six-year battle with cancer.
Born in Ballina, Co Mayo, in 1947, his father was a cigire scoile and his mother a teacher. The family, who hailed from west Cork, moved to Killarney, Co Kerry, and then to Clontarf in Dublin, where Joe attended Belgrove National School and then St Paul's, Raheny, before going on to study engineering at UCD.
Asked by the career guidance teacher at St Paul's why he wanted to become a civil engineer, Joe replied: "Because I want to design bridges."
He graduated from UCD in 1967, working for McCarthy and Partners in Balgriffin and later Denis O'Leary and Partners before setting up in business with Dermot Roughan.
Earlier projects included the Dodder road bridge at Milltown (1974), the Knockadangan (1978) and Ugool (1981) bridges in Co Mayo, four motorway overbridges on the first phase of the M50 (1989), four on the N3 between Blanchardstown and Clonee (1990-92) and two on the M4 Maynooth-Leixlip bypass (1993).
Joe O'Donovan was not intimidated by the idea of collaborating with architects on the design of bridges. One of his most fruitful working relationships was with Grafton Architects on the Killarney Road bridge over the N11 in Co Wicklow, which won an award from the Architectural Association of Ireland in 1995.
Another of his N11 projects, the Kilmacanogue footbridge, won an Irish Concrete Society award in 2000. He was also a Fellow of both Engineers Ireland and the Irish Academy of Engineers, a leading member of the Association of Consulting Engineers of Ireland and winner of a distinguished graduate award from UCD.
The esteem in which he was held derived from his outstanding technical skills and passion for excellence. He conveyed this philosophy to Roughan and O'Donovan's engineers and technicians, instilling a culture of taking pride in their achievements, and developed great bonds with his staff, peers and clients.
A passionate yet studious individual, he was both strong and compassionate, serious and joyful, with wide ranging interests in politics, economics, sport, history and music, as long-time friend and colleague Dermot Forde noted in his eulogy. "With his broad, infectious and enthusiastic smile, he could warm the coldest of hearts."
He had a cosmopolitan taste in sport and engaged in rugby, cricket, basketball, tennis, Gaelic football and hurling while at school, and followed his father to become a member of Royal Dublin Golf Club while still in his teens. He spent much of his leisure time on its links course and in 1987 became its youngest captain.
Joe O'Donovan was a great lover of the arts including music, poetry and literature and often made reference to F Scott Fitz-gerald who died at an early age, believing himself to be a failure. He always encouraged his colleagues to reflect on their achievements, citing Christopher Wren's epitaph: "Si monumentum requiris, circumspice".
His own monuments are there for all to see, most notably the Boyne and Dargan bridges - dramatic cable-stayed structures that captured the public's imagination, especially while they were under construction. He was also responsible for six of the M1 overbridges between Dublin airport and Balbriggan and numerous others throughout the country.
Throughout his illness, as Dermot Forde recalled, he was supported by "the unbridled, unceas- ing love of the incomparable Helen and their marvellous young, adult children". He had also "researched his particular illness diligently and fought like a lion to keep it at bay, only conceding when he knew the end was inevitable".
He is survived by his wife Helen and their children, Karen, Peter, Ann Marie and Donal.
Joe O'Donovan: born June 9th, 1946; died May 10th, 2008