GOETHALS, GEORGE WASHING TON, an American engineer; born at Brooklyn, N. Y., June 29, 1858; received his collegiate training at the College of the City of New York, and entered the United States Military Academy in 1876. Upon his graduation in 1880, he was ap pointed second lieutenant in the Engineer Corps. From which rank he continued to rise, until, in 1909, he became colonel. and in 1916 retired with the rank of Major-general. He saw service in the Spanish-American War as lieutenant Colonel and chief of engineers of the United States Volunteers. Previous to this, he had acted as assistant professor of military engineering at West Point from 1885 to 1887, and had been engineer in charge of the important Mussel Shoals canal construction on the Ten nessee river in 1888. In recognition of his ability he was appointed to member ship cn the Board of Fortifications and, in 1903, was made a member of the gen eral staff. After President Roosevelt had decided to undertake the construc tion of the PANAMA CANAL (q. v.), as a government operation entirely, he appointed Colonel Goethals chairman and chief engineer of a new commission made up of army and navy technical ex perts, which superseded the former civilian commission. Colonel Goethals brought to the work a wide familiarity with the conduct of government engi neering operations, a practical knowledge of large scale supervisory and adminis trative engineering, plus a thorough tech nical and theoretical equipment. Under his leadership the business of building the canal quickly assumed a systematic, efficient aspect which permeated every division of the great work. The giant
problems of machinery, excavation, labor control, sanitation, developed a harmony of organized effort under his control. In trusted with wide executive powers, Col onel Goethals succeeded in eliminating points of friction which had so largely delayed progress on the work pre vious to his appointment. In his selec tion of assistants he exhibited that rare administrative insight which justified his appointment. The social and sanitary problems were satisfactorily solved under the direction of Gen. William C. Gorgas, and the total result was a degree of in dustrial efficiency which astonished the engineering world, and which made the completion of the canal a practical actu ality by 1914.
Highly honored for his services to the world, Colonel Goethals received recogni tion from the University of Pennsylvania which, in 1913, conferred the degree of LL.D. upon him. In 1914 the Civic Forum of New York, the National Insti tute of Social Sciences, and the National Geographic Society awarded him medals.
After declining the office of Police Commissioner of New York City, offered to him by Mayor Mitchel, and refusing the position of City Manager of Dayton, 0., he accepted the office of Civil Gover nor of the Canal Zone in 1914. He re signed as Governor of Canal Zone in 1916. During the World War he was a member of the Shipping Board and ad viser to the Secretary of War and the Council of National Defense. Upon the conclusion of peace he retired to private life as a consulting engineer.