An Engineer
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William John Wilgus 1865 – 1949
William was born 20th. November 1865 in Buffalo, New York,
the son of Francis Augustus Wilgus and Margaret Ann Woodock. Francis worked as a
foreman at New York Central Railroad’s Carroll Street Freight House, little
knowing the important part his son would play in the development of railways
in America. Beginning his career
as a draughtsman, William proved himself to be a brilliant civil engineer
working for various railroad companies until he was eventually appointed
Chief Engineer with the Buffalo Terminal Railway Company. Ultimately he
became Vice president and
Chief Engineer of Grand Central Station in New York. Following a train crash
in Manhattan in 1907, which killed seventeen people, he devised an innovative
two-level scheme thus making a new, more efficient terminal. He was described
by a contemporary as “one of the greatest construction men this country ever
saw”. During the First World War William volunteered and served
as a member of the Military Railway Commission to England and France and
became Deputy Director General of Transportation in the American
Expeditionary Forces with the rank of Colonel. After the War he continued
working in the field of railroad engineering and in 1921 was awarded an
honorary doctorate in engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology
and the same honour in 1927 from the University of Vermont. He married twice, his first bride
in 1892 being May Reed. The couple lived
on Broadway, New York and had two children but William’s family life was,
perhaps, not a complete success. His daughter, Margaret,
eloped at the age of nineteen, William not approving the marriage on the
grounds that she was too young. Happily, Margaret was forgiven and welcomed
back with her husband, Clarence Smith, only
to die eight years later at the age of twentyseven. William’s only son, William John Junior, following the suicide of his
former fiancée, Mrs. Vivian Miner, attempted to poison himself and spent some
time in the Psychiatric Section of Belle Vue Hospital. In 1918 May died and
the following year William married Gertrude
Bernadette Tobin, a published
author. Retiring in 1942,, following a
short illness William died on 24th. October 1949. |
