Dennis William "Bill" Brosnan Jr. (April 14, 1903 – June 14, 1985) was a president of Southern Railway in the US, a railroad that later merged with

Norfolk and Western Railroad The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

to form

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

. Born in 1903 in

Albany, Georgia Albany ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Located on the Flint River, it is the county seat of Dougherty County, Georgia, Dougherty County, and is the sole incorporated city in that county. Located in Southwest Geo ...

, Brosnan was the son of the town's fire chief. In 1923, he took a job as an engineer with the Georgia Department of Highways, before taking a job as an apprentice student engineer for the Southern Railway three years later, maintaining the right-of-way. Between 1931 and 1952, Brosnan had several promotions, from apprentice student engineer to junior engineer, division superintendent, general manager of the Central Lines of the Southern Railway and then to vice president of operations. During his time as chief engineer for the Western Lines of the Southern Railway, in 1945 and 1946, Brosnan oversaw an increased mechanization of track maintenance and construction on the Southern Railway, and during his time as general manager for the Central Lines, he oversaw the automation of freight car classification in yards and terminals. He succeeded

Harry A. DeButts Harry Ashby DeButts (October 13, 1895 – August 27, 1983) was a president of Southern Railway in the United States. He was succeeded by D. William Brosnan in 1962. deButts graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1916 and joined Southe ...

as president in 1962. Brosnon was notable for his impact on the railroad industry, including his implementation of labor-saving mechanical improvements, his introduction of marketing to the rail industry, his fights against government regulation, as well as his "imperious" management style. He has been characterized as a "demanding leader" and "a prescient despot". In 1964, Brosnan was selected as the first recipient of the Man of the Year award by ''

Modern Railways ''Modern Railways'' is a monthly British magazine covering the rail transport industry, which was published by Ian Allan until March 2012 and Key Publishing since then. It has been published since 1962. The magazine was based originally in Shep ...

'' magazine, an award now presented by ''

Railway Age ''Railway Age'' is an American trade magazine for the rail transport industry. It was founded in 1856 in Chicago (the United States' major railroad hub) and is published monthly by Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. History The magazine ...

'' magazine as the

Railroader of the Year Railroader of the Year is an annual award presented to a North American railroad industry worker by trade journal ''Railway Age''. The award was first presented in 1964 by trade journal ''Modern Railroads'' and has continued through the magazine ac ...

. Brosnan was succeeded as president by W. Graham Claytor, Jr. He remained on the board of directors of the Southern until 1983. Brosnan died in 1985. Norfolk Southern's 14,400 acre nature preserve near

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

, Brosnan Forest, is named after Brosnan. This tract of land was first acquired by the

South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company was a railroad in South Carolina that operated independently from 1830 to 1844. One of the first railroads in North America to be chartered and constructed, it provided the first steam-powered, sched ...

in the 1830s as a timber tract for its wooden railroad ties and was subsequently passed to the

South Carolina Railroad The South Carolina Rail Road Company was a railroad company that operated in South Carolina from 1843 to 1894, when it was succeeded by the Southern Railway (U.S.), Southern Railway. It was formed in 1844 by the merger of the South Carolina Canal ...

in 1843, the Southern Railway in 1899, and Norfolk Southern in 1990.

References

External links

Photograph of D. William Brosnan in the Georgia Tech Photograph Collection (VAC375)
1985 deaths 20th-century American railroad executives Southern Railway (U.S.) 1903 births People from Albany, Georgia {{US-rail-bio-stub

See also

References

External links