William P. Trowbridge

General William P. Trowbridge, one of the most modest as he was one of the most distinguished members of the Century, rendered it most efficient and valuable service as Chairman of the Building Committee of the new Club House. It required an intimate personal acquaintance with him, (he was of such a retiring nature,) to discover the real merit of the man. Graduating at West Point, at the head of his class, in 1848, he was assigned to the Corps of Engineers. He served as assistant professor of chemistry and in the observatory at West Point; afterwards in the Coast Survey he was in charge of the triangulation of the coast of Maine, and in surveying the Appomattox and James Rivers, near Richmond, during which he recommended the cut-off or canal at Dutch Gap, which was subsequently constructed. Later he conducted a series of surveys of the Pacific Coast, including astronomical, tidal, and magnetic observations, from San Diego to Puget Sound. He resigned from the army, in 1856, to become professor of mathematics at the University of Michigan, and afterwards became, at the request of Professor Bache, scientific secretary of the Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey, and prepared for publication the results of the Gulf Stream Exploration. At the beginning of the war he prepared charts, containing minute descriptions of the harbors, inlets, and rivers of the Southern Coast for the navy, and made a hydrographic survey of a part of Narragansett Bay for the erection of a navy yard. He served in the Union army during the Civil War, and was in charge of the engineer agency in this city, which supplied materials for fortifications, and the constructing and shipping of engineer supplies for the armies in the field. Later he was superintending engineer of the construction of the fort at Willett’s Point, of repairs at Fort Schuyler, and of works on Governor’s Island. Returning to civil life he was for four years President of the Novelty Iron Works, and afterwards for seven years Professor of Dynamical Engineering in the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, during which time he was a Commissioner of the State of Connecticut for the building of the new Capitol at Hartford, until 1877, when he was called to the charge of the Engineering Department of the School of Mines of Columbia College, which position he filled at the time of his death. This is a brilliant record of a brilliant engineer who we thought had many years of usefulness left him. Those who were connected with him in his work upon the Club House can bear testimony to the zeal and ability he gave to the service, which are conspicuous in the result; and all who knew him well will unite in testifying to the unvarying courtesy and charming social qualities of the man.

Henry E. Howland
1893 Century Association Yearbook