Elwood Mead

Elwood Mead ( born January 16, 1858 in Patriot, Indiana, † January 26, 1936 in Washington, DC ) was an American engineer and professor of agriculture. He was the builder of the Hoover Dam.

Life

Mead made ​​in 1882 from Purdue University with a bachelor's, a master's degree in 1883 and his doctorate in 1884 at the State University of Iowa Dr.- Ing. In between (1883/1884 and 1886-1888), he taught mathematics at the Agricultural University of Colorado. As a civil servant engineer in the U.S. state of Wyoming formulated Mead 1888/1889 the first state water laws. He then worked for the Ministry of Interior of the United States from 1897 to 1907.

1907 Mead became CEO of "State Rivers & Water Supply Commission " ( Water Supply Commission) in the Australian state of Victoria. But even eight years later he returned as professor of agriculture at the University of California back to the U.S., where he was initially 1915 to 1924 Chairman of the "California Land Settlement Board" ( Committee on California Land Grab ), and finally stood from 1926 to 1936 the Bureau of Reclamation, a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior, before.

In this last position, Mead led the construction of the Hoover Dam, the Grand Coulee Dam and the Owyhee Dam.

Mead died on January 26, 1936 while working in the office.

Honors

• " Lake Mead " is the name of the reservoir behind the Hoover Dam
• Honorary doctorate from Purdue University; the first award of this University (1904 )
• The ship SS " Elwood Mead " was named after him

Bibliography

• Irrigation and Closer Settlement in Australia, in: Australia To-Day, 1910.
• Irrigation in Victoria, in: A. M. Laughton & T.S. Hall: Handbook to Victoria, published by Albert J. Mullett, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1914.