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John Ripley Freeman | |
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| Born | (1855-07-27)July 27, 1855 |
| Died | October 6, 1932(1932-10-06) (aged 77) |
| Citizenship | American |
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| Scientific career | |
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| Chairman of the NACA | |
| In office 1918–1919 | |
| President | Woodrow Wilson |
| Preceded by | William F. Durand |
| Succeeded by | Charles Doolittle Walcott |
John Ripley Freeman (July 27, 1855 – October 6, 1932) was an Americancivil andhydraulic engineer. He is known for the design of several waterworks and served as president of both theAmerican Society of Civil Engineers and theAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Freeman was born in WestBridgton, Maine on his father's farm. He attended the country school in his hometown and public schools inPortland, Maine andLawrence, Massachusetts. He entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1872, graduating with his BSc in civil engineering in 1876.[1]
After graduating, Freeman started his career at theEssex water power company as assistant to the company's engineer, Hiram F. Mills. In those days he became acquainted with other leading engineers such asCharles Storer Storrow,James B. Francis, Joseph R. Davis and John C. Hoadley. In 1886, he moved to Boston, where he was appointed engineer and inspector at the Associated Mutual Fire Insurance Company.[1] In the next decades Freeman was thedesign engineer for several water projects, served on several water works commissions, and was consulting engineer for many projects.
Freeman served as president of theAmerican Society of Civil Engineers and of theAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers. He was also the founder and president of Massachusetts Mutual Fire Insurance Company. He was a member of theNational Advisory Committee for Aeronautics duringWorld War I, and served as chairman from 1918 to 1919.
Freeman received numerous honorary degrees. He received Doctor of Science degrees from Brown University in 1904; from Tufts College in 1905; from the Sachsischen Technischen Hochschule in Dresden, Germany, in June 1925; from the University of Pennsylvania in 1927; and from Yale University in 1931. in 1922 he was awarded theASME Medal.
In the late 1920s Freeman established fellowships to send promising students and professors to cutting edge hydraulic labs with a focus on exposing them to practices he believed would be useful in solving river problems.[2] One of these professors wasBlake R. Van Leer who invented the California pipe method for measuring water while working for theSouthern Pacific Railroad Company.[3] Van Leer later became the president atGeorgia Institute of Technology.
Freeman was elected Honorary Member ofPhi Beta Kappa at Brown University in 1901; Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1918; Honorary Member of the Marsaryk Academy of Works in Czechoslovakia in 1926; Ehrenbürger (Honorary Member) der Badischen Technischen Hochschule in Karlsruhe, Germany, in January 1929; Mitglied des Wissenschaftlichen Beirats des Forschungs-Institutes in München und Walchcnsee, Bavaria, Germany in January 1931; and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Freeman is noted for his work designing and building theCharles River Dam in Boston, advising the US government on dam and lock foundations for thePanama Canal, and influencing the design ofMIT's new campus inCambridge, Massachusetts.
Freeman was thedesign engineer for theLake Spaulding Dam, theHolter Dam, theHetch Hetchy Aqueduct, theCharles River Dam, theKeokuk Dam, theLos Angeles Aqueduct[verification needed], and portions of thePanama Canal.[4][1]
