Severn was elected president of the ICE for the November 1990 to November 1991 session and was heavily involved in the running of the ICE's South-West region. Severn was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1992 for his services to civil engineering and in January 1995 he led a team of European experts to carry out a detailed study of structural failures that occurred during and after the Kobe earthquake. Following his retirement from the university later in 1995 was granted the position of Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering. In 1997, Severn delivered the sixth Mallet-Milne memorial lecture (entitled "Structural Response Prediction Using Experimental Data") for the Society for Earthquake and Civil Engineering Dynamics, in London. Severn authored several books including a history of Victorian engineering and a discussion of structural modelling. His last major project was a book on the history of engineering at Bristol to mark the faculty's centenary in 2009, he funded this himself and donated the royalties to establish a university scholarship fund.