John Ripley Freeman

John Ripley Freeman
Born (1855-07-27)July 27, 1855
West Bridgton, Maine
Died October 6, 1932(1932-10-06) (aged 77)
Providence, Rhode Island
Residence United States
Citizenship American
Fields
Institutions
Alma mater
Notable awards
Spouse
  • Elizabeth Farwell née Clark
Chairman of the NACA
In office
1918–1919
President Woodrow Wilson
Preceded by William F. Durand
Succeeded by Charles Doolittle Walcott

John Ripley Freeman (July 27, 1855 – October 6, 1932) was an American civil and hydraulic engineer. Freeman was born in West Bridgton, Maine and received his undergraduate degree from MIT in 1876. He is noted for his efforts to design and build the Charles River Dam, advising the government on dam and lock foundations for the Panama Canal, and influencing the design of MIT's new campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was also the founder and president of Massachusetts Mutual Fire Insurance Company. He was a member of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics during World War I, and served as chairman from 1918–1919.

Freeman was the design engineer for several water projects, including the Lake Spaulding Dam, the Holter Dam, the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct, the Charles River Dam, the Keokuk Dam, the Los Angeles Aqueduct, and the Panama Canal).[1][2]

Degrees and Honors

References

  1. Mount, Sci-Tech Archives and Manuscript Collections, 1989, p. 49; Jackson, Building the Ultimate Dam: John S. Eastwood and the Control of Water in the West, 2005, p. 285, fn. 33.
  2. "Biographical Memoir of John Ripley Freeman, 1855–1932" (PDF). National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved November 15, 2014.


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