Ernest W. Eickelberg – Lieutenant Commander, U. S. Coastal & Geodetic Survey

From a contemporary press report:

Lieutenant Commander Ernest W. Eickelberg died Tuesday night, May 20, 1941, in Marine Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, after a lingering illness.

Born in Haskins, Ohio, March 25, 1890, he graduated from Cornell University in 1913, with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, and entered the service of this Bureau, June 20 of the same year. He received his early education in Buffalo, New York, and Baltimore, Maryland. He married Mary Louise Stover of Wilmington, North Carolina, and they have two children, Jean Stover and Ernest Werner, Jr.

He was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers; Philosophical Society of Washington; Society of American Military Engineers; Washington Society of Engineers; Washington Academy of Sciences; Heroes of ’76; Sojourners; the Anchor Masonic Club; Society for Research on Meteorites; American Geophysical Union; and the American Society of Photogrammetry.

Commander Eickelberg possessed unusual ability as an engineer during his tenure of service with the Survey and was engaged in every phase of its work. Before the first World War, he was employed in wire-drag surveys, topography, hydrography, reconnaissance, and triangulation in Alaska, and reconnaissance and triangulation in Maryland and California.

From September 24, 1917 to June 6, 1919, he served as first Lieutenant in the U.S. Coast Artillery Corps, as second in command of the U. S. A. mine planter GRAHAM until April 1918, and then in command until June 6, 1919. He was promoted to the rank of Captain in September 1918, in charge of laying and testing mines and controlling cables.

After the war he returned to the Bureau on gravity work, first-order triangulation, and base measurements, in California, Oregon, and Idaho; following which he had charge of a first-order triangulation party, and reconnaissance and base line measurements between Tacoma, Washington, and British Columbia, connecting the American and Columbian arcs of triangulation. He was also in charge of the District of Columbia-Virginia boundary survey. In Manila, he was in charge of the
computing office, in connection with the adjustment of the triangulation nets of the Philippine Islands. From 1931 to 1938, he was Assistant Chief of the Division of Terrestrial Magnetism and Seismology, in the Washington Office.

He served as executive officer of the Survey ships PATHFINDER, LYDONIA, and SURVEYOR, and commanding officer of the EXPLORER and GUIDE in Alaska, holding the latter position up to the time of his last illness.

Commander Eickelberg had many friends, for he was sincere in his esteem and his enjoyment of the companionship of all with whom he worked.

Funeral services were held on the afternoon of Friday, May 23, at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Arlington, Virginia, with interment in Arlington National Cemetery.

Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard