# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/henry-petroski
# Generated: 2026-08-14T02:21:07.908Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/henry-petroski"
name: "Henry Petroski"
slug: "henry-petroski"
description: "Henry Petroski was an American engineer specializing in failure analysis. A professor both of civil engineering and history at Duke University, he was also a prolific author. Petroski wrote over a dozen books – beginning with To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design (1985) and including a number of titles detailing the industrial design history of common, everyday objects, such as pencils, paper clips, toothpicks, and silverware. His first book was made into the film When Engineering Fails. He was a frequent lecturer and a columnist for the magazines American Scientist and Prism."
tagline: "American Professor and Author (1942–2023)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Henry_Petroski_Photo.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Writers"
  slug: "writers"
profileType:
  name: "Writer / Author"
  slug: "writer"
birthDate: "1942-02-06"
deathDate: "2023-06-14"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           45.06
  momentum:             3.893129770992366
  historical:           6.556517333333334
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     44.99999999999999
  profileCompleteness:  75
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
platforms:
  - platform:  "IMDB"
    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2609940/"
    handle:    "nm2609940"
sources:
  - url: "https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Petroski"
    title: "Henry Petroski"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Petroski"
    title: "Henry Petroski"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Petroski"
    title: "Henry Petroski"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Petroski"
    title: "Henry Petroski"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%94%D7%A0%D7%A8%D7%99_%D7%A4%D7%98%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%A1%D7%A7%D7%99"
    title: "הנרי פטרוסקי"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%98%E3%83%B3%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9A%E3%83%88%E3%83%AD%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AD%E3%83%BC"
    title: "ヘンリー・ペトロスキー"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5965492"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://www.themoviedb.org/person/3955003"
    title: "Henry Petroski"
    type:  "DATABASE"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump