Granville Moorman Read (March 18, 1894The Johns Family History
" at ''rootsweb.ancestry.com.'' Last updated: 2017-04-19. Accessed 2017-09-17. – December 1, 1962) was an American

mechanical engineer Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...

and Chief Engineer at E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. from 1946 to 1959.Alexander Hopkins McDannald, ''Yearbook of the Encyclopedia Americana,'' 1963. p. 764 In 1955 the

ASME The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing ...

awarded Read the

ASME Medal The ASME Medal, created in 1920, is the highest award bestowed by the ASME (founded as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Board of Governors for "eminently distinguished engineering achievement". The award has been presented every year ...

""for his outstanding leadership in developing men and in organizing and completing projects of extraordinary national and industrial importance."

Biography

Youth, education and early career

Read was born in

Bedford County, Virginia Bedford County is a United States county located in the Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is the town of Bedford, which was an independent city from 1968 until rejoining the county in 2013. Bedford County was c ...

in 1894, son of Daniel Warwick Read and Laura Moorman Read. His father was a lawyer and teacher,George Derby, James Terry White., ''The National Cyclopædia of American Biography.'' 1968. p.702. and both parents had been teachers at the New London Academy from 1885 to 1896. Read attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute, now

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

, the

Drexel Institute Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Art, S ...

, and the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...

in Paris, France. After his graduation in 1915 he started his lifelong career at E.l. du Pont de Nemours & Co.

Further career and acknowledgement

In 1915 Read started at Du Pont as a "material checker at the smokeless-powder plant in Hopewell, Va., which the company operated for the federal government during the First World War." From 1930 to 1940 he served as Assistant Director of the Industrial Engineering Division. In World War II he participated in the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

. As deputy of E.G. Ackart, Du Pont's chief engineer and Engineering Department head, Read was primary responsibility for the construction aspects of the plutonium program at Du Pont. From 1946 to 1959 Raed was Chief Engineer at Du Pont as successor of E.G. Ackart. In 1955 Read was awarded the

by the ASME, and in 1957 the

National Society of Professional Engineers The National Society of Professional Engineers (abbreviate as NSPE) is a professional association representing licensed professional engineers in the United States. NSPE is the recognized voice and advocate of licensed Professional Engineers repr ...

granted him the NSPE Award for Outstanding Service to the engineering profession. On May 29, 1960 the

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universit ...

awarded Read the Honorary degree.

Home and family

Read lived at the stately home, called Read-Moor, in

near the New London Academy on Route 811. Read bought it in 1936 from his uncle Barlow Read, the original owner. Read remodelled and modernized the old house and named it ''Read-Moor''. Read died at his home in Westover Hills, Wilmington, Delaware on December 1, 1962.''Mechanical Engineering Magazine,'' Volume 85. 1963. p. 111

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Read, Granville Moorman 1894 births 1962 deaths American mechanical engineers DuPont people Virginia Tech alumni Drexel University alumni École des Beaux-Arts alumni People from Bedford County, Virginia ASME Medal recipients Engineers from Virginia 20th-century American engineers Manhattan Project people