Elwood Mead (January 16, 1858 – January 26, 1936) was an American

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

, government official, and engineer known for heading the

United States Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, and formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and opera ...

(USBR) from 1924 until his death in 1936. During his tenure, he oversaw some of the most complex projects the Bureau of Reclamation has undertaken. These included the Hoover,

Grand Coulee Grand Coulee is an ancient river bed in the U.S. state of Washington. This National Natural Landmark stretches for about 60 miles (100 km) southwest from Grand Coulee Dam to Soap Lake, being bisected by Dry Falls into the Upper and Lower ...

and Owyhee dams.

Early life and career

Mead was born in

Patriot, Indiana Patriot is a town in Posey Township, Switzerland County, in the U.S. state of Indiana, along the Ohio River. The population was 209 at the 2010 census. Geography Patriot is located at (38.838215, −84.827764). It is the easternmost settlem ...

, and graduated from

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mone ...

with a Bachelor of Science in 1882. He worked for the

United States Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

in Indianapolis for seven months and departed for Fort Collins, Colorado, by the end of the year.

Career

There he started work as a professor by teaching mathematics at Colorado Agricultural College from 1883 until 1884, and again from 1886 to 1888. He developed and taught the first class on irrigation engineering in the United States. Mead also worked for the Colorado State engineer's Office.

Public service

In 1888, Mead became the territorial and state engineer of

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

. From 1888 until 1899, he was key in drafting the water laws for Wyoming. He was also a prominent supporter of the Cody Canal, one of the nation's first

Carey Act The Carey Act of 1894 (also known as the Federal Desert Land Act)Carey Act in Idaho http://www.gchshome.org/careyact.htm. allowed private companies in the U.S. to erect irrigation systems in the western semi-arid states, and profit from the sales ...

projects undertaken by a group of investors, including William F. Cody. In 1899, Mead was appointed head of irrigation investigations for the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

, based out of Cheyenne. There, he had an important role of directing irrigation studies across the west. In 1907, Mead was appointed chairman of the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission of

Victoria, Australia Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in ...

. He served there for four years, though the Australian records show that he continued to work there until May 1915. In 1911, he returned to the United States to become the professor of rural institutions at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

, and chairman of the California Land Settlement Board. His ideas about developing efficient rural communities would later influence what would become the

Resettlement Administration The Resettlement Administration (RA) was a New Deal U.S. federal agency created May 1, 1935. It relocated struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government. On September 1, 1937, it was succeeded by the Farm S ...

communities of the New Deal. He continued to serve in California until 1924, when he was appointed commissioner of the

(USBR) in President Calvin Coolidge's administration. In 1923 and again in 1927, he went to Palestine to help the

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

s develop irrigation and development plans. At the USBR, Mead oversaw the planning and execution of construction of major water control and irrigation projects in the West: the Hoover,

and Owyhee dams.

Death

Mead died on January 26, 1936, at the age of 78 in Washington, D.C., from

thrombosis Thrombosis (from Ancient Greek "clotting") is the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel (a vein or an artery) is injured, the body uses platelets (t ...

, just four months after the completion of Boulder Dam. Originally interred at Abbey Mausoleum, he was reburied at National Memorial Park in Falls Church, Virginia, in 2001 after the former crypt closed and was demolished.

Legacy and honors

Lake Mead Lake Mead is a reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States. It is located in the states of Nevada and Arizona, east of Las Vegas. It is the largest reservoir in the US in terms of water capacity. L ...

, formed by the construction of the Hoover Dam on the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

, was named after Mead. He is also the namesake to the SS ''Elwood Mead'', a

Liberty ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Ma ...

which was launched in 1944.

References

External links

J. M. Powell, "Mead, Elwood (1858-1936)"
'' Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 10, Melbourne University Press, 1986, pp 467–468. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mead, Elwood 1858 births 1936 deaths American civil engineers Purdue University alumni Colorado State University faculty Deaths from thrombosis Educators from Indiana Engineers from Indiana United States Bureau of Reclamation personnel People from Switzerland County, Indiana