Background
Russell Glenn Cone was born on March 22, 1896 in Ottumwa, Iowa, United States. He was the son of Frank Cone and Alice Haddon. His father was a superintendent for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.
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Russell Glenn Cone
Edit ProfileEducation
In 1916 he enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana to study civil engineering. After his discharge in May 1919, he completed the B. S. in civil engineering.
Career
It was with this firm that Cone began his career in 1915 as a rodman on the construction of the Metropolis Bridge across the Ohio River near Paducah. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Cone enlisted in the army and served eighteen months in Europe with the 149th Field Artillery, 42nd Division. Cone first worked in Philadelphia, where he was a junior engineer on the construction of the 1, 750-foot Delaware River (Philadelphia-Camden) Bridge, then the longest suspension bridge in the world. He was quickly promoted to assistant engineer, and then to resident engineer in charge of central span construction. With the completion of the Delaware River Bridge in 1926, Cone moved in 1927 to Detroit, where he was made resident engineer in charge of all construction on the Ambassador Bridge. Linking Detroit with Windsor, Ontario, across the Detroit River, the 1, 850-foot Ambassador Bridge superseded the Delaware River Bridge as the world's longest suspended span. Although the Ambassador Bridge opened in November 1929, Cone remained with the bridge until early 1930 when he became general manager of the Tacony-Palmyra Toll Bridge at Palmyra. Cone's preeminence as an authority on suspension bridge construction soon led Joseph B. Strauss, chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge, to seek his assistance. Although Strauss was an internationally renowned bridge engineer, he had had no experience with suspension structures. Cone would provide that needed experience. Work commenced on the 4, 200-foot structure in February 1933, with Cone as resident engineer in charge of construction. He continued to direct the engineers and inspectors until the bridge was opened in 1937. Cone succeeded Strauss as engineer in charge of maintenance for the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District. He served in that position from 1937 to 1941, introducing several novel procedures in the maintenance of the bridge. When he left the employ of the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District in 1941, he undertook the engineering study for the passenger tramway at Mt. San Jacinto near Palm Springs, California. In that year he was also appointed a member of the board of investigation of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse by the Washington State Toll Bridge Authority. Later in 1941, Cone became associated with the Silas Mason Company of New York, which had received a large government contract to build the Louisiana Ordnance Plant near Shreveport. He began as assistant general manager with that project. Throughout World War II he directed construction of other large ordnance plants for the company, including the Iowa Ordnance Plant at Burlington, the Cornhusker Ordnance Plant at Grand Island, Nebraska, and the Green River Ordnance Plant at Dixon, Illinois. Cone continued working for the Silas Mason Company after the war as general manager, helping the firm enter the field of atomic weapons design and production for the Department of Defense. In 1950 the firm took over the architectural-engineering responsibilities for the first atomic tests in Nevada. Cone served as the site project manager for the atomic tests staged between 1950 and 1953 by the Atomic Energy Commission at Frenchman's Flat and Yucca Flats. He also directed construction of the Pantex Implosion Plant at Amarillo, Texas. In 1956 Cone was drawn back to large-scale bridge construction as vice-president and general manager of the Mason Hanger-Silas Mason Company, which had a contract to build the foundations for the Carquinez Strait Bridge at Crockett, California. This was the biggest pier project since the foundations for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge were erected in the 1930's. The Carquinez project proved to be a particularly difficult engineering task, and it was finally completed at a substantial financial loss. In the year prior to his death at Vallejo, California, he was negotiating with the directors of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District to become the district's general manager and chief engineer.
Achievements
Connections
On June 10, 1922, he married Izetta Lucas; they had one son. Following a divorce from his first wife in 1938, Cone married Jeanne Fozard Hamilton on January 6, 1939. After a divorce from his second wife, Cone married Pearl Janet Bloomquist on February 3, 1957.
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Born
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Died
January 21, 1961 (aged 64) -
Nationality
American