Harvey Slocum (October 23, 1887 – November 11, 1961) was an American

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

and dam-building expert, known primarily for his part in the construction of

Grand Coulee Dam Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had two powerhous ...

in the United States and the

Bhakra Dam Bhakra Nangal Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Satluj River in Bhakra Village in Bilaspur district, Himachal Pradesh in northern India. The dam forms the Gobind Sagar reservoir. Nangal Dam is another dam at Nangal in Punjab downstream o ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. "Harvey Slocum, Dam Builder, Dies; Consultant on Grand Coulee and Hoover Projects, 74,"
''New York Times.'' November 12, 1961 Slocum had little formal education, he started out as a labourer in a steel mill but eventually rose to the position of construction superintendent on the Grand Coulee Dam. Harvey Slocum was then Construction Superintendent of the

Bull Shoals Dam Bull Shoals Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the White River in northern Arkansas in the United States. The dam lies on the border of Marion and Baxter Counties, and forms Bull Shoals Lake, which extends well northwest into Missouri. Its main p ...

built between 1947 and 1951. Slocum joined the

construction project as chief engineer in 1952 and imprinted on it his own distinctive style of working. He was a flamboyant personality who drove a current model powder blue Cadillac convertible; not expected of an engineer in those times in India. He was also known as a stern disciplinarian. All officers and workers on the dorm were mandated to dress uniformly and historian

Ramachandra Guha Ramachandra "Ram" Guha (born 29 April 1958) is an Indian historian, environmentalist, writer and public intellectual whose research interests include social, political, contemporary, environmental and cricket history. He is an important autho ...

writes that Slocum "could not abide the sloth and inefficiency that was rampant around him". Many workers from the United States Bull Shoals Dam project joined Slocum on the construction of the Bhakra Dam. A small city was constructed to house the U.S. workers. Slocum died in New Delhi at age 74.

Notes

References

* Downs, L. Vaughn. (1993). ''The mightiest of them all: memories of Grand Coulee Dam.'' New York: ASCE Press.
OCLC 28890824
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slocum, Harvey American civil engineers 1887 births 1961 deaths