Alfred D. Flinn

All of the engineering experts who came to New York soon encountered the pleasant personality of Alfred Douglas Flinn. He was for many years secretary and executive officer of the Joint Organization of Engineering Societies, the duties of which position brought him in frequent contact with the large engineering projects of the day and with the promising younger engineers. When he became Deputy Chief Engineer of the New York City Board of Water Supply—which built, during his connection with it, the Catskill Aqueduct, the Ashokan and Kensico dams, and in whose constructive work $140,000,000 was expended by the City—it was said that Flinn not only recruited the hundreds of engineers enlisted in the undertaking, but personally interviewed the applicants when they had passed the Civil Service tests. This was not all; the exacting duties of his office covered the obtaining of structures and equipment; preparation of contracts, estimates of cost, writing of special and annual reports; inspection of manufactured materials; selecting of consulting architects and co-operation with them; co-operation with general and special consulting engineers, geologists, landscape engineers, sanitation specialists, and, during the war, military organizations guarding the water-works; establishment and management of a special laboratory for research and testing of materials. But Flinn did this arduous work effectively, and he found time for frequent visits to the Century.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1938 Century Association Yearbook