Charles Peter Berkey

Charles Peter Berkey(March 25, 1867-April 22, 1955) was an Americangeologist,notable as a founder of the discipline ofengineering geology,for his work on the great dams of the 1930s, and as chief geologist on theGobi Desertexpeditions inMongolialed byRoy Chapman Andrewsin the 1920s.

Early life and education

Born inGoshen, Indiana,Berkey grew up on farms inIndiana,thenTexas,and ultimatelyMinnesota,graduating fromFarmington High School.He enrolled in theUniversity of Minnesotain 1889, receiving his undergraduate degree in 1892 and continuing to receive a Ph.D. in geology in 1897 (the first to be awarded by the university). His teachers includedNewton Horace Winchell(whose son,Alexander Newton Winchellhe later himself taught). Berkey's thesis became the foundational reference for the study of theDalles of the St. Croix River,a scenic area of 60 square miles on the Minnesota-Wisconsin boundary.

Career

Berkey remained as an instructor at the University of Minnesota until 1903, when he was recruited by professorJames KemptoColumbia UniversityinNew York City.The timing was propitious, because Kemp had just become a consultant to the Catskill Project of the city'sBoard of Water Supply.This was a monumental engineering project involving the creation of large dams, 90 miles of aqueduct, drilling a total of three vertical miles of access shafts, all with the aim of diverting of a huge water flow to a tunnel under theHudson Riverand thus to the city. Soon after the arrival of his younger colleague, Kemp withdrew from the project and Berkey took his place.

During the Catskill Project's nearly two decades of construction, to the mid-1920s, Berkey became, in effect, the country's leading engineering geologist--although that term was not yet in use. The new field's name came to exist only after the catastrophic failure of theSt. Francis DaminLos Angeles County, California,in 1928 killed more than 400 people. Engineering geologists were then in high demand and short supply. Berkey was appointed byPresident Coolidgeto the board tasked to approve the design ofHoover Dam.His responsibility was to assess that the rock walls and floor of theColorado Riverwould be able to hold the dam's enormous pressure. He was also an advisor to the construction of theGrand Coulee Damand reservoir and participated in the engineering geological assessments of theHollandandLincolntunnels in New York City, the foundations for theGeorge Washington,Whitestone,andTriborobridges, and, in the west, theFriant,Shasta,Bonneville,andParkerdams.

Berkey was Chief Geologist and Petrographer on the Central Asiatic Expeditions of theAmerican Museum of Natural History,famously led byRoy Chapman Andrewsin 1922, 1923, and 1925. Berkey's insistence that the expedition's photographer hike over some hills to record an unusual geological feature led instead to the latter's discovery of the field of fossils that included the famousfossil dinosaur eggs,a find for which Berkey, as a geologist, never claimed credit, later admitting that he "never thought too much about the eggs".His book, "The Geology of Mongolia"is still reprinted as a classic. He was elected to theNational Academy of Sciencesin 1927, cited for his Mongolia work.He was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Societyin 1928.In 1950 theGeological Society of AmericapublishedApplication of Geology to Engineering Practicein his honor.

Berkey served for many years as head of Columbia's geology department.

Retirement

He retired from Columbia in 1932 to live with his wife Minnie (nee Best) inPalisades, New Jersey.In 1947 he was asked to evaluate several proposed sites for theUnited Nationsand opined that theEast Riversite was "the best place in the world," not for engineering reasons but, "withGrand Central stationnear-by and theRadio City Music Hallfor a movie after a hard day. "He was 88 when he died in 1955.