Charles Willauer Kutz

Charles Willauer Kutz (October 14, 1870, in Reading, Pennsylvania – January 25, 1951, in Washington, D.C.) was an American brigadier general in the Army Corps of Engineers and the longest serving District of Columbia Engineer Commissioner in the history of the position. In 1920 he served as acting president of the board of commissioners, the chief executive position in the district, for one week – he was the only engineer commissioner to do so. For 12 days in March of 1921, he was the only commissioner on the board, and its de facto leader.

Early life and education
Charles Kutz was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, on October 14, 1870. His father Allen Kutz had been a first lieutenant in the Pennsylvania Volunteers during the Civil War and had fought at Antietam. His father died when he was only two years old, and Kutz had to get through school while working at a local bank from the age of 10. He was able to get into West Point via a competitive examination.

Military and political career
In June 1889, he enrolled at the United States Military Academy and graduated number two of fifty-one in the class of 1893. He was commissioned additional second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers and then went to the Engineer School of Application at the Fort at Willets Point for the special course in engineering, graduating in 1896.

Kutz rose in the ranks from lieutenant to major. He was stationed at various locations throughout the United States, including Baltimore, MD; Portland, ME; Washington, DC and Seattle, WA. Main tasks were, among other things, the maintenance of the waterways and ports, and the construction of military facilities. Between 1911 and 1914, he was stationed in the Philippines. From 1906 to 1908 he was an instructor at West Point.

In 1914, Kutz became the military civil engineer member of the three-person board of commissioners that governed the city of Washington. He concurrently became chairman of the newly formed Public Utilities Commission. In 1917, shortly after being promoted to colonel, he was ordered to France for duty with the American Expeditionary Force in the First World War. After arriving in France he became assistant to the chief engineer of the 13th Engineer Railway Regiment. He was promoted to brigadier general, National Army, in June 1918 and assigned as assistant chief of staff, Services of Supply. In July he left France and took command of Camp Humphries, the main training ground for officers of the engineering corps. In October of 1918 he was again appointed the engineer commissioner of the District of Columbia Board of Commissioners, and served until 1921. In 1920, he served as its acting chairman for a week. His biggest contribution during his second term was as the first chairman of the District Zoning Commission, that was created in 1920. He was responsible for the zoning of the district into use, area and heights districts.

In 1941, he was called out of retirement and again made engineering commissioner of the District of Columbia by President Roosevelt.

After his retirement he became a consulting engineer to the Sanitary District of Chicago and to the Minister of Works of Venezuela for the Maracaibo Bar Commission on the matter of providing a stable and ample deep water entrance to the oil port of Maracaibo.

Kutz was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Army and Navy Club.

Personal life
Kutz married Elizabeth Randolph Keim on June 25, 1895. He had three children, Emily Randolph Bingham; Marian Elizabeth Ross, whose husband Lewis Tenney Ross, was also a general; and Colonel Charles Randolph Kutz, who served in Washington in the Army General Staff. He had five grandchildren including First Lieut. Tenney Kutz Ross, who was killed in action in Korea in November 1950.

Death and legacy
He died on January 25, 1951, at St. Elizabets in Washington and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

In 1954, the Independence Avenue bridge over the Tidal Basin was renamed the Kutz Bridge in his honor.