Walter Howard Sawyer

Background

Walter Howard was born on May 21, 1867 at Middletown, Connecticut, United States, the son of John Marshall and Mary (James) Sawyer.

Education

Thrown upon his own resources in his youth, Sawyer worked his way through school and graduated from Bromfield Academy at Harvard, Massachussets.

Later, he studied engineering in the office of Shedd & Sawyer of Boston and in the evening schools of that city.

Career

Between 1885 and 1902 Sawyer made preliminary surveys for the New York & Boston Rapid Transit Railroad and for a sewerage system at Newburyport, Massachussets; was resident engineer of the hydro-electric development on the Androscoggin River at Rumford Falls, Maine, one of the early larger developments of its kind in New England; and was engaged in other hydraulic and sanitary projects in various parts of New England - including a sewer system for Lisbon, Maine, hydraulic developments at Hookset, and Lewiston, Maine - and in work connected with water-rights cases.

In 1902 he was appointed agent and engineer for the Union Water Power Company of Lewiston, Maine, with responsible charge of the large water power development at Lewiston and the operation of the extensive storage system of the Androscoggin River, consisting of the Rangeley Lakes system and totalling about thirty billion cubic feet of capacity. He held this position for the remainder of his life.

In 1909 his Aziscohos Reservoir development in the headwaters of the Androscoggin River became possible because of a concentration of head using this storage, totalling some 425 feet, in the hands of four large utility and paper companies; but it required long negotiations and untiring energy to consummate. He gave much time to research - maintaining a laboratory for this purpose at Lewiston, and devised a method of measurement of water by electro-chemical means, and a method of sewage treatment.

He was active in the civic affairs of his home city, Auburn, Maine, serving as alderman and upon several commissions; he also formed the Auburn Sewerage District and had a complete sewerage system planned for the city.

During the World War he was an active member of the Maine Public Safety Committee and a member of the Federal Milk Commission of New England. He served as president of the Maine Society of Civil Engineers and was prominent in other national and state organizations of this kind.

His death occurred in Auburn after a long illness.

Achievements

• Through his famous work on operation of the extensive storage system of the Androscoggin River, and through an active consulting practice as well, Walter Howard Sawyer exerted a forceful and important influence on the industrial development of Maine. Besides, he planned and carried out the Aziscohos Reservoir development in the headwaters of the Androscoggin River, the first project of its kind in New England where cooperative use of stored water upon a large scale was involved. In carrying out the project Sawyer invented an adjustable log sluice of novel design. Besides, he was a pioneer in developing methods of studying the operation of storage reservoirs and was the author of a monograph on ice expansion.

Personality

As an engineer, he displayed much ingenuity and good judgment in his constructions.

Connections

On April 23, 1900, Sawyer married Helen F. Hayes of Wellesley, Massachussets, and he was survived by one daughter.

Father:

John Marshall Sawyer

Mother:

Mary (James) Sawyer

Spouse:

Helen F. Hayes