Prof. E. Greene Died Suddenly

The Dean of the Engineering Department

A FAMOUS ENGINEER

Whose Work Has Been of Lasting Benefit to His Profession - A Great Loss to Ann Arbor

Prof. Charles E. Greene, the dean of the engineering department, died suddenly of heart disease at 9 o'clock last evening. News of his death came as a shock to his friends, for although it was known that for the past two years he had been in failing health, no one looked for a sudden termination of his useful life. He attended to his duties up to the last and yesterday afternoon was out looking at some sidewalk that was being built near his house. He was feeling fairly well until about 3 o'clock when he had considerable pain, but was not considered seriously ill. At about 9 o'clock he was taken with a sinking spell and several physicians were at once summoned, but before any of them arrived he had passed away.

Prof. Greene was one of the most eminent men in his profession. In popular phraseology, he was the man who made bridge building easy. In his great work on Graphics for Engineers, he introduced an original method of graphical analysis which revolutionized modern methods of engineers in computing the stress in bridge building. When the great bridge over Niagara was built to replace the old suspension bridge his methods of computation were used and when the great span was complete and the arch met in the center, the engineers tested the stress and found that the computations by Prof. Greene's method had been exact, a practical demonstration which excited great interest in the engineering world.

Charles. E. Greene was born in Cambridge, Mass., February 12, 1842. Growing up under the shadow of Harvard, he naturally resorted to that institution for his collegiate education. He entered there in 1858, after pursuing the preparatory studies at the Cambridge High school and afterwards at Philips Exeter academy. He was graduated A. B. at Harvard in 1862 and immediately engaged in the business of manufacturing breech-loading rifles. He gave up in the early part of 1864 to enter the military service of the Union as a volunteer. His first position was that of quartermaster's clerk at Camp Meigs, a camp of rendezvous established at Readville, Mass. In January, 1865, he was commissioned first lieutenant in the Seventh regiment of U. S. colored troops, stationed before Richmond, Va., and was appointed regimental quartermaster. He retained this office was transferred to Indianola, Texas, where he resigned his commission in August, 1866.

He entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to pursue the study of civil engineering and graduated in 1868. He was immediately appointed assistant engineer on the Bangor and Piscataquis railroad in Maine and when that was finished he was employed under Gen. George Thom on the United States river and harbor improvements in Maine and New Hampshire. This position he left to take the office of city engineer of Bangor, Me., which he held until called to the chair of civil engineering at the University of Michigan in the fall of 1872. Shortly before this he had declined an appointment to a similar chair in Washington University at St. Louis. He took the place of the veteran Prof. De Volson Word, and although young and without experience in teaching his abilities withstood the severe test. But the students quickly recognized the true manhood, the strength, simplicity, honor and well poised judgment which we call the level head. They soon began to feel that confidence in his teachings and that respect and affection for his person which have been heartily accorded to him from that day to this. The love which his students came to feel for him cannot be forcibly enough expressed to convey a true impression.

He urged and assisted in the bringing about the organization of the chairs of mining and mechanical engineering.

When the department of engineering was created in 1895, Pro. Greene was made its first dean, a position which he held until his death.

Prof. Greene has been more closely identified with Ann Arbor than is usual with University professors. He designed the engineering plans and superintended the construction of the Ann Arbor waterworks. His were the plans for the present excellent sanitary sewer system in Ann Arbor. He designed and built the trestle bridge of the Ann Arbor railroad over the Huron river, a big span on a curve, a feat which attracted much attention from engineers at the time. He was a director and vice president of the Farmers & Mechanics bank. He was a director of the Ann Arbor Organ Co. He took a deep interest in all that concerned the material welfare of the city. For some time he was commander of the local G. A. R. post.

Among the books he wrote and which have been used generally by engineers were "Graphical Methods for Analysis of Bridge Trusses, Extending to Continuous Girders and Draw Spans," (N.Y. 1875); "Graphics for Engineers, Architects and Builders" in three volumes, entitled respectively "Roff Trusses," "Bridge Trusses" and "Arches in Wood, Iron and Stone" (1876-80). He has written many miscellaneous articles for scientific publications.

He was chief engineer of the Toledo, Ann Arbor & Northern railroad in 1880 and it was in that capacity that he designed and built the trestle bridge over the Huron at Ann Arbor, a work described in "Abstracts of Papers in Foreign Transactions," published by the Institutions of Civil Engineers of Great Britain in 1881. He was in 1882 superintending and then consulting engineer of the Wheeling & Lake Erie railroad bridge across the Maumee at Toledo and also consulting engineer in 1883 of the Cherry street bridge at Toledo.

Prof. Greene has been a member of many engineering organizations and has served as president of the Michigan Association of Engineers and Surveyors. One who heard him says that he talked before the state engineers for two hours on one occasion upon an extremely technical subject and not a word needed changing if his talk had been published in a book. His clearness and precision of utterance were proverbial.

Prof. Greene possessed that quiet self-possession that suggests reserved force, a clearness of apprehension and a clear and clean-cut style of statement. He was of an extremely kindly nature, a gentleman of the old school.

Prof. Greene was very happy in his family relations and leaves a wife, a son and daughter.

The University and the city have sustained a great loss.