Logan Waller Page (January 10, 1870 – December 9, 1918) was an American government official. He became the first director of the Office of Public Roads in 1905, after the U.S. Congress passed an act that consolidated the Office of Public Inquiry and the Bureau of Chemistry.

Early life

Logan Waller Page was born on January 10, 1870, in

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

, to Legh R. Page. He studied at the

Virginia Polytechnic Institute The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

and later graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. He also attended the National School of Bridges and Roads in France.

Career

Page worked for the state of Massachusetts as a geologist and testing engineer. He conducted the first extensive investigation of road-building materials in America. In 1900, he became chief of the Division of Tests, a division of the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and producti ...

, in Washington, D.C. In this role, he studied road building on a national scale. Later, as chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, a series of investigations conducted awarded the laboratories he directed international acclaim. On July 1, 1905, he became the first director of the Office of Public Roads. In 1915, it was renamed the Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering and in 1918, it was renamed the Bureau of Public Roads. Page helped prepare the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 with the U.S. Congress. He then worked with state highway departments in planning and executing work relating to the law. He also advised state legislatures in their activities to enable federal cooperation. Page was chairman of the United States Highways Council during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. At the time of his death, he was director of road work for the Department of Agriculture. Page invented machines for highway improvement. He wrote a number of publications on road construction. Page conducted "a petrographic study" of road-building materials and wrote the first comprehensive report on the elements of road-building rocks. He improved French rock-testing machines that led to physical testing of road-building rocks to become a routine procedure. He was president of the American Highway Association, director of the American Road Builders' Association and a member of the International Road Congress, representing the United States government. He was a member of the

American Society of Civil Engineers The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is a tax-exempt professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, it is the oldest national engineering soci ...

. He was a member of Cosmos, Chevy Chase and Harvard clubs.

Personal life

Page married Ann Page Shaler of

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

. They had one son Lee. He was the cousin of

Walter Hines Page Walter Hines Page (August 15, 1855 – December 21, 1918) was an American journalist, publisher, and diplomat. He was the United States ambassador to Great Britain during World War I. After World War I broke out in 1914 Page was so enthusiastica ...

. He lived on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C. On December 9, 1918, Logan attended a meeting in Chicago with the executive committee of the American Association of State Highway Officials. Later that same day, he became ill during dinner and died later that night of heart disease at his hotel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Page, Logan Waller 1870 births 1918 deaths Administrators of the Federal Highway Administration Harvard University alumni People from Richmond, Virginia People from Massachusetts Civil servants from Washington, D.C. 19th-century American geologists