Carl Ewald Grunsky (April 4, 1855 – June 9, 1934) was a

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...

and civil engineer throughout the mid 19th century.

Biography

In 1896 Grunsky implemented the innovative gravity-based sewer channeling waste rapidly from

North Point North Point is a mixed-use urban area in the Eastern District of Hong Kong. Located in the northeastern part of Hong Kong Island, the area is named after a cape between Causeway Bay and Tsat Tsz Mui that projects toward Kowloon Bay. Locat ...

Golden Gate The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by t ...

or towards Oakland. He served as member on the Board of Trustees from 1898 to 1904 at the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 1853 ...

where in 1911 he was promoted to secretary and was elected president in 1912. Before entering the field of geology and civil engineering, Carl Grunsky originally pursued a career in

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

. After entering a Realschule and Polytechnikum in Stuttgart,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, he switched to civil engineering. After starting his first career as a city engineer of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

from 1900 to 1904 and gaining recognition he consequently became a member of the

Panama Canal Commission The Panama Canal Zone ( es, Zona del Canal de Panamá), also simply known as the Canal Zone, was an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the Isthmus of Panama, that existed from 1903 to 1979. It was located within the terri ...

from 1904 to 1905. From 1905 to 1907 he served as a consulting engineer for the US Reclamation Service. He succeeded Dr. Barton Warren Evermann and acted as a director of Museum of Academy and the Steinhart Aquarium in 1932. Grunsky spent most of his time working to supervise the rivers. After receiving the Norman Medal of the

American Society of Civil Engineers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

in 1910, he was elected vice president in 1922 and president in 1924. In 1924 he was also president of the Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was president of the American Engineering Council from 1930 to 1931. He played a significant role during the

St. Francis Dam The St. Francis Dam was a concrete gravity dam located in San Francisquito Canyon in Los Angeles County, California, United States, built from 1924 to 1926 to serve Los Angeles's growing water needs. It catastrophically failed in 1928 due to a d ...

expedition. Grunsky and his co-worker John C. Branner announced that the dam was working properly right before the St. Francis dam broke. The breakage of the dam marked the end of

William Mulholland William Mulholland (September 11, 1855 – July 22, 1935) was an Irish American self-taught civil engineer who was responsible for building the infrastructure to provide a water supply that allowed Los Angeles to grow into the largest city in Ca ...

's career. G. D. Hanna describes Grunsky as follows: "One faculty he possessed fitted him particularly for presiding over meetings and groups of people. He was a very clear thinker and could organize his subject matter rapidly, yet he spoke with deliberation and crisp enunciation.

Political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

, particularly those phases dealing with rates,

taxation A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, o ...

and forms of money, fascinated him and he published extensively on the subject . He was always interested in art and during his later years found time to paint some backgrounds of the habitat groups of African animals now being installed by the academy." Grunsky died during an accident at his home in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

, on June 9, 1934.

References

*CBS San Francisco, Article "Touring San Francisco’s Historic Sewer System" by Matt Baume on October 4, 2010 *New Series, Vol. 79, No. 2060 (Jun. 22, 1934), p. 556 Published by: American Association for the Advancement of Science {{DEFAULTSORT:Grunsky, Carl E 1855 births 1931 deaths American civil engineers American geologists Engineers from California