Leader of a team of engineers, Mr. Strauser created a new field---environmental river engineering---with a goal of maintaining a safe and dependable navigation channel in an environmentally sensitive manner; innovations include notched dikes, off bank line revetments, bendway weirs, hard points, chevrons, stepped-up dikes, multiple round point structures to benefit total ecosystem of Mississippi River, both navigation projects and aquatic inhabitants; implemented environmental pool management, a new way of operating locks and dams on river.