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.
C&GS Bulletin, 5/31/1941
