User:Hrsocalnb/sandbox

Ernest Walker Sawyer
Ernest Walker Sawyer (March 17, 1886 - May 9, 1971) was an "engineer,entrepreneur and pioneer of radio-telegraphy in the United States, Canada,and Great Britain". [1] He served as the Executive Assistant to Ray Lyman Wilbur [2] [3] who was the 31st United State Secretary of the Interior.

Early life and education
Sawyer was born on March 17, 1886 as the middle son of Joseph Albert Sawyer and Sarah Maria Mary Frances ("Fannie") Hanna Sawyer. He was a descendant of Mayflower Pilgrim Thomas Rogers. [5] Ernest Walker Sawyer's older brother was Guy Herbert Sawyer [6] and his younger brother was Dwight Lewis Sawyer. [7]

He graduated from Stanford University receiving a B.A. degree in 1909 in Civil Engineering [8][9] at a time when Ray Lyman Wilber was the President of Stanford University. On June 26, 1909 in Los Angeles, California he married Florence B. Davies [10] and had six children [11]: Norman Davies Sawyer [12], Joseph Addison Sawyer, Ernest Walker Sawyer Jr.[13], Florence Virginia Sawyer [14] , Richard Davies Sawyer [15] , and David Davies Sawyer.

On March 12, 1929 Sawyer accepted the post of the Executive Assistant Secretary of the Interior. Sawyer served under Ray Lyman Wilbur who was the 31st United States Secretary of Interior [16][17] which government position he held while at the same time remaining as the third President of Stanford University.

Official Brief Biography to 1932
Sawyer's biography was briefly summarized in the "STATEMENT GIVING RESUME OF MR. SAWYER'S EXPERIENCE1" placed into the record by the Chairman, Louis C. Cramton, Interior Department Appropriation Bill, 1932: Hearings before Subcommittee of House Committee on Appropriations by United States, Seventy-First Congress, Third Session, [18]  as follows:

"Ernest Walker Sawyer was born in Braceville, Ill., March 17, 1886. Graduated from Genesco Collegiate Institute, Genesco, Ill., 1904. Graduated from Stanford University, civil-engineering department, in 1909. (Degree A.B.)

"His engineering (sic) began in 1900 on a survey party in Iowa for Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. In 1901 he was levelman on Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul. In 1902 he was levelman on Green River Drainage Commission in Illinois. In 1904 he was levelman on Western Pacific Feather River Canyon. In 1905 he was a transitman for Snow Mountain Water & Power Co., Ukiah, Calif. In 1906 he was assistant engineer on Central Pacific at Colfax, Calif. In 1908 he was foreman on pavement work for Fairchild Gilmore Wilton Co. (Griffith Co.), Los Angeles. In 1909, 1910, 1911 he gathered engineering experience on the Southern Pacific in Imperial Valley, on the Maibabi ranch in Sonora and on irrigation and roadwork in Modoc County.

"For three sessions, 1906, 1907, 1908 he was field assistant in surveying and railroad engineering at Stanford University. Then in 1911 he became construction engineer of Federal Telegraph Co., [19] San Francisco. [20] He also had charge of development laboratories in Palo Alto and operations of radio stations in 12 cities. [21]

"In 1912 he was loaned to Universal Radio Syndicate and constructed the largest radio station in Canada at Newcastle, New Brunswick. By 1914 he operated that station for the Canadian Government.[22]

"In 1915 he formed a partnership with C.F. Elwell [23] [24] [25] in London where he lived for five years. He built up the second largest radio company in England and constructed the radio equipment for Eiffel Tower, Lyons, Rome, [26][27] [28]   Oxford, Cairo, Constantinople, Salonika, Saigon, and hundreds of other cities and countries.   He was a member of the American Club in London, American Luncheon Club of London, Eagle Hutter, the Royal Automobile Club, and Institute of Electrical Engineers of London.

"While in London he also formed the Galvanizing Equipment Co. of which he was Chairman of the Board of Directors, was the English representative of the American Association of Engineers of which organization he carried membership card No. 234, and was one of the founders of Radio Communication Co. (Ltd.) of London which became the second largest radio company in England at that time.[29]

"In 1920 he returned to New York and became consulting engineer to William Randolph Hearst, All American Cables, and Postal Telegraph Co. He made two lengthy trips to Berlin to arrange traffic agreements for Postal Telegraph Co.

"In 1923 he formed and established the Chas. Freshman Radio Co., in New York that became fourth in size in United States, then organized and became general manager of Electrad (Inc.) In New York which was a very large manufacture of radio parts.

"In 1925 he returned to Los Angeles to make it his permanent home. It was there that he became very active in the manufacturing and sales of radio equipment, radio-consulting work, and broadcasting.	"In 1929 at the invitation of President Herbert Hoover he went to Washington, D.C. Hoover was familiar not only with Sawyer's organizational work in the early stages of radio development in this country but also on behalf of the British Government including his success in equipping Eiffel Tower and other European stations with his manufactured equipment. Secretary Wilbur was also familiar with Sawyer's earlier railroad development work in the West and stated that he had watched Sawyer's 'development for 25 years'."

The Great Circle Map
As a cartographer in his own right, Ernest Walker Sawyer personally created the Great Circle Map [30] that is fully entitled:

GREAT CIRCLE MAP SHOWING FAIRBANKS, ALASKA A GEOGRAPHICAL CENTER OF       Europe, Asia, America and The Territories of	 the PACIFIC YUKON HIGHWAY

The Great Circle Map although used for other means of communications and transportation, many decades later it was classified by the American government for use by the Secretary of State in the Cold War against Russia and then declassified in 1980. [31]

The Alaskan-Canadian Highway
Sawyer was acknowledged as "The first high-level government official to advocate construction of a highway to Alaska through Canada, Sawyer recommended in 1929 that "every assistance should be given to effect early completing, which would permit thousands of Los Angeles auto tourists to travel direct by auto 4000 miles to Fairbanks...In part because of his efforts, Congress created an international commission to study the feasibility of the highway...". [32]

"On July 30, 1930 President Hoover "...appointed Ernest Walker Sawyer, Herbert Rice, Major Malcolm Elliott of the Army Engineer Corps to investigate the practicability of a highway for the north west part of the U.S. to Alaska." [33]

As one of the three original "Commissioners" of the Alaskan-Canadian Highway, Sawyer was instrumental in laying out the actual route. The Commissioners would approve of the specific route of this vital highway with the Hon. R. Bruce (Lieut.- Governor of British Columbia, Canada) having had the overview and approval for the Province of British Columbia and the Dominion of Canada.

On October 15, 1930 the Los Angeles Herald Examiner reported the following and included an Associate Press photograph:

"INTERNATIONAL HIGHWAY LEADERS: More than fifty Mexicans and 	American engineers and public officials assembled in Los Angeles on 	October 15 to discuss plans for completion of the International Pacific	highway from Alaska to Argentina through Mexico. Here are four of the	outstanding advocates of the project, left to right: Ernest W. Sawyer, of	the United States Department of the Interior, Governor Francisco Elias	of Sonora, Mexico, Filiberto Gomez, Governor of the State of Mexico	and representative of President Pascual Ortiz Rubio, and Harry Chandler,	publisher of the Los Angeles Times." [34]

Years Following 1932
In 1933 Mr. Sawyer "returned to private life, practicing as an executive in the oil industry in the 1940's" [35] [36] as well as pursuing his other interests in medical research, ornithology, and philanthropy. [37]

Final Years
Mr. Sawyer lived in Hancock Park at 425 N. June Street, Los Angeles. [38] His first wife and the mother of their six children died at the age of 64 at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, California on May 2, 1951. And Mr. Sawyer died at the age of 85 in Santa Monica, California on May 9, 1971. Both are buried next to each other at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, Los Angeles, California. [39]