Up for auction a RARE! "Chairman TVA" Herbert Vogel Signed 3X4 B&W Photo.
ES-3268
Herbert D. Vogel, one of the world leaders in professional
engineering and one of the most creative minds in the area of engineering
progress, a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a
former chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority, and a former engineer
adviser of the World Bank, died on August 26, 1984, at Walter Reed Army Medical
Center, in Washington, D.C. General Vogel was born in Chelsea, Michigan, in
1900 and lived in Washington, D.C., at the time of his death. After graduating
with a B.S. from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1924, he obtained
an M.S. in civil engineering from the University of California in 1928, a
doctorate in hydraulic engineering from the Berlin Technical University the
following year, and a professional civil engineering (C.E.) degree from the
University of Michigan in 1933. During World War II, General Vogel served in
the South Pacific. Herbert Vogel married Loreine Elliott, daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Eugene Elliott of Washington, D.C., on December 23, 1925, while he was
stationed at Fort Humphreys (now Fort Belvoir). Their close and happy marriage
produced two sons, Colonel Herbert Davis Vogel, Jr., and Richard Elliott Vogel.
Colonel Vogel, Jr. (Ret.), is also a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and
is now vice-president of Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Incorporated,
and his brother Richard is an attorney. General and Mrs. Vogel were enjoying
four grandchildren at the time of his death. Mrs. Vogel, a lovely and active
lady, fully supported Herbert in his endeavors for fifty-nine years. Active in
military and professional engineering matters throughout his career, General
Vogel retired from the army in 1954 as division engineer of the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers' Southwestern Division. During this portion of his career, he
contributed to the control of large waterways by proving and exploiting the
validity of hydraulic models, a contribution that brought about a revolution in
engineering concepts. The use of these models was prompted by the country's
need to find methods of controlling the Mississippi River and its tributaries
to prevent recurrences of the disastrous floods of 1927. Major General Charles
G. Holle (Ret.) stated that General Vogel attended the Berliner Technische
Hochschule, graduating with the degree of doctor of engineering. Next he
followed duty with the Mississippi River Commission in Vicksburg, Mississippi,
to create the U.S. Waterways Experiment Station, which has become so well-known
and highly regarded, worldwide. Full credit of the prestige of the WES is due
to General Vogel having been the first director, 1929–1934, for the sound
establishment and orientation of it, and for his expert counseling as the WES
developed during the subsequent years. Major General K. D. Nichols (Ret.) also
contributed to the facts in this memorial, adding the following: As a result of
his early initiative, Vog combined his intelligence, engineering knowledge,
superior judgment, fierce loyalty to his profession, high professional
standards, sensitivity, and humor to become one of the world's outstanding
hydraulic engineers, respected by his host of friends and associates worldwide.
Once the U.S. Waterways Experiment Station was constructed and in operation,
Vogel and his colleagues opened new areas of research and convinced authorities
of the reasonableness of using new methods and techniques for solving the
problems involved in the control of the Mississippi River and other sizable
waterways. Their work required the use, for the first time, of extensive,
small- scale models of large rivers. Although these models had some vertical
distortion (because a very small horizontal scale had to be used), they were
nevertheless useful for waterway control, and new techniques and methods were
developed through these models that went far beyond the European concepts. Indeed,
the U.S. Waterways Experiment Station has become a model for practical
hydraulic research institutions around the world and is now the most complete
and active installation of its kind anywhere. It has been visited by thousands
of people from all over the globe. In addition, during the past fifty years,
hundreds of problems relating to all parts of the United States and many
foreign countries have been brought to the experiment station for study.
Millions of dollars have been saved as a result of its work, and major
hydraulic structure design improvements have been made. General Vogel was
appointed chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by President Dwight
D. Eisenhower, a position he held until 1963. During his nine years as chairman,
he had executive responsibility for the operation of the largest electric power
system in the United States. During this period, the capacity of the system was
more than doubled; it was supplying electric energy to an area of over eighty
thousand square miles. TVA is responsible for the unified development of
natural resources over an area of forty-one thousand square miles and for the
development of navigation and flood mode control of the Tennessee River System.
Herbert also served as both president and consulting engineer of the Tennessee
River and Tributaries Association.
