User:Cigross2/William Walter Hay



William Walter Hay (December 10, 1908 - March 26, 1998) was an American civil engineer. He made numerous contributions to the field of railroad engineering, including publication of the premier textbook on the topic, and was renown for his involvement in railway engineering education

Early life and education
Hay was born on December 10, 1908 in Bay City, Michigan. He received his B.S. in Management Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1931, then worked for a period with the Pennsylvania Railroad and in a chemical plant. Between 1932 and 1933, Hay studied railway operations at Yale University. During the years of the Great Depression, Hay help numerous positions with rapid transit lines and railroads, including the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Long Island Railroad, the 8th Ave. subway, the Milwaukee Road and the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad before being called to service during the Second World War.

Military Service
Hay's military service was with the Military Railway Service, where he rose in rank from 1st Lieutenant to Lieutenant Colonel. He served in the European Theater of Operations, then the Pacific before settling in Korea as the Chief Engineer of Korean Railways. After the War ended, Hay returned to Yale to take more coursework on transportation and economics at New York University, then worked for a period with the Reading Railroad.

Career
In February, 1947, Hay joined the faculty of the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign as an Assistant Professor of Railway Civil Engineering. While at Illinois, he earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in 1948 and 1956, respectively. In 1956, Hay was promoted to the position of Professor of Railway Civil Engineering, where he remained until retiring in 1977 as Professor Emeritus of Railway Civil Engineering.

While teaching at Illinois, Hay noted the lack of a modern textbook on the topic of railway engineering as a serious impediment to students, and endeavored to write such a text. The first edition of Hay's Railroad Engineering was published in 1952, and the revised edition, that is used to this day, was published in 1982. He also wrote a more general text, An Introduction to Transportation Engineering, published in 1961 and revised in 1977. His influence at UIUC lives on both through both the continuing rail program and the William W. Hay Railroad Engineering Collection in the Grainger Engineering Library at Illinois.

Personal life
Hay was married to Mary Clark Hubley in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on February 20, 1943. They had two children; a son, William Walter Hay Jr., and a daughter, Mary Elizabeth Hay. Hay passed away March 26, 1998. His wife, Mary, passed away on March 22, 2004.