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HERBERT D
1900-1984
. VOGEL
BY HARRY E. BOVAY
HERBERT D VOGEL one of the world leaders in profes-
sional engineering and one of the most creative minds in the
area of engineering progress, a retired brigadier general in
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a former chairman of the
Tennessee Valley Authority, and a former engineer adviser
of the World Bank, ctied on August 26, 1984, at Walter Reed
Army Medical Center, in Washington, D.C.
General Vogel was born in Chelsea, Michigan, in 1900 and
livect in Washington, D.C., at the time of his death. After
graduating with a B.S. from the U.S. Military Academy at
West Point in 1924, he obtained an M.S. in civil engineering
from the University of California in 192S, a doctorate in hy-
draulic engineering from the Berlin Technical University the
following year, and a professional civil engineering (C.E.) de-
gree from the University of Michigan in 1933. During World
War Il. General Vogel served in the South Pacific.
Herbert Vogel married Loreine Elliott, daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Eugene Elliott of Washington, D.C., on December
23, 1925, while he was stationed at Fort Humphreys (now
Fort Beivoir). Their close and happy marriage produced two
sons, Colonel Herbert Davis Vogel, fir., and Richard Elliott
Vogel. Colonel Vogel, Jr. (Ret.), is also a graduate of the U.S.
Military Academy and is now vice-president of Merrill Lynch
Pierce Penner & Smith Incorporated, and his brother Rich-
339
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
ard is an attorney. General ant! Mrs. Vogel were enjoying
four grandchildren at the time of his death. Mrs. Vogel, a
lovely and active lady, fully supported Herbert in his en(leav-
ors for fifty-nine years.
Active in military and professional engineering matters
throughout his career, General Vogel retiree! from the army
in 1954 as division engineer of the U.S. Army Corps of En-
gineers' Southwestern Division. During this portion of his ca-
reer, he contributed to the control of large waterways by
proving and exploiting the validity of hydraulic models, a
contribution that brought about a revolution in engineering
concepts. The use of these models was prompted by the
country's need to find methods of controlling the Mississippi
River and its tributaries to prevent recurrences of the disas-
trous floods of 1927.
Major General Charles G. Holle (Ret.) states! that General
Vogel
attended the Berliner Technische Hochschule, graduating with the de-
gree of doctor of engineering. Next he followed duty with the Missis-
sippi River Commission in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to create the U.S.
Waterways Experiment Station, which has become so well-known and
highly regarded, worldwide. Full credit of the prestige of the WES is
due to General Vogel having been the first director, 1929-1934, for
the sound establishment and orientation of it, and for his expert coun-
seling as the WES developed during the subsequent years.
Major General K. D. Nichols (Ret.) also contributed to the
facts in this memorial, adcling the following:
As a result of his early initiative, Vog combined his intelligence, engi-
neering knowledge, superiorjudgment, fierce loyalty to his profession,
high professional standards, sensitivity, and humor to become one of
the world's outstanding hydraulic engineers, respected by his host of
friends and associates worldwide.
Once the U.S. Waterways Experiment Station was con-
structed and in operation, Vogel and his colleagues opened
new areas of research ant! convinced authorities of the rea-
sonableness of using new methods ant! techniques for solv-
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HERBERT D. VOGEL
341
ing the problems involved in the control of the Mississippi
River and other sizable waterways. Their work required the
use, for the first time, of extensive, small-scale models of
large rivers. Although these models had some vertical distor-
tion (because a very small horizontal scale hac! to be used),
they were nevertheless useful for waterway control, and new
techniques and methods were developed through these
models that went far beyond the European concepts.
Incleed, the U.S. Waterways Experiment Station has be-
come a mode} for practical hydraulic research institutions
around the worIc! and is now the most complete and active
installation of its kind anywhere. It has been visited by thou-
sands of people from all over the globe. In addition, during
the past fifty years, hundreds of problems relating to all parts
of the United States and many foreign countries have been
brought to the experiment station for stucly. Millions of dol-
lars have been saved as a result of its work, and major hy-
clraulic structure design improvements have been made.
General Vogel was appointed chairman of the Tennessee
Valley Authority (TVA) by President Dwight D. Eisenhower,
a position he held until 1963. During his nine years as chair-
man, he had executive responsibility for the operation of the
largest electric power system in the United States. During
this periocl, the capacity of the system was more than
doubled; it was supplying electric energy to an area of over
eighty thousand square miles.
TVA is responsible for the unified development of natural
resources over an area of forty-one thousand square miles
and for the development of navigation and flood control of
the Tennessee River System. Herbert also served as both
president and consulting engineer of the Tennessee River
and Tributaries Association.
George H. Kimmons, retired manager of Tams Office of
Engineering Design and Construction, wrote:
During one's career there is always one person who stands out above
all the others. For me that person is General Herbert D. Vogel. He was
respected by his associates for his achievements and leadership abili-
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
ties. Not only was General Vogel an outstanding engineer and a great
Army officer, he was also one of the most likeable men with whom I
have ever had the pleasure of working. I worked directly with General
Vogel during his term as chairman of the board of the Tennessee Val-
ley Authority and later when each of us was serving as a member of
the Permanent International Association of Navigation Congresses.
As an engineering adviser to the World Bank from 1963
to 1967, General Vogel contributed greatly to the success of
the bank, which relies largely on the successful engineering
of its projects. He also served in an ex officio capacity as an
engineer member of the bank's working party for the Indus
Basin Project during its construction, which required many
trips to Pakistan. His influence was felt in the supervision of
a dam site study and in the authorship of a work entitled
"Water and Power Resources of West Pakistan."
In his practice as a consultant and founder of Herbert D.
Vogel and Associates ~ ~ 967 to ~ 984), his attributes of creative
thinking and leadership were highlighted. For example, (lur-
ing this time, he presented papers at several meetings of the
Permanent International Association of Navigation Con-
gresses that cleaned the U.S. position on inIancI navigation
problems. This position inclucled the exchange of planning
ant! engineering technologies with developing countries and
their relationship to improving maritime ports and inland
terminals. In more recent years, he expressed the view that
the entire watershed of the Potomac River shouIct be devel-
oped with a view to meeting the long-range water needs of
the Washington metropolitan area.
An authority on water and soil conservation and flood con-
trol, General Vogel authored] numerous papers ant! articles
on hydraulic moclels, river and harbor engineering, and the
clevelopment and operation of large electric power systems.
As a result, his professional efforts have had a large and ben-
eficial impact on society. His small-scale river mode! testings
for waterways have proviclecl viable solutions to otherwise
unsolvable complex problems; they have also saved millions
of dollars in addition to improving and adding increased
safety features in hyciraulic structure designs.
.
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343
Because of the proof provided by the experiment station
as to the validity of models, engineers today do not build
large, expensive hydraulic structures until they are first
tested on a small-scale basis. Mocle! tests have saved untold
millions of clolIars in construction costs and have prevented
further heavy losses of life and property resulting from di-
sastrous flooding.
A planner, builder, ant! former director of the U.S. Water-
ways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Vogel
also server! as lieutenant governor of the Panama Canal
Zone. He was a member of both the Mississippi River Com-
mission and the Boars! of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors
anal served as chairman of the Arkansas-White-Rect River
Basins Interagency Committee.
His many awards and honors include the Distinguishec!
Honorary Graduate Award of the U.S. Army Engineer
School; the Colon Alfaro Medal; the Knight of the Grant}
Cross (Thailand); the Distinguished Alumnus Awarc! of the
University of Michigan; the Award for Meritorious Service to
the Engineering Profession of the Year 1967, given by the
Consulting Engineers Council; and the Liberation and In-
dependence Medals of the Philippines. General Vogel was
also selected in 1972 as the Elected Occupant of the George
W. Goethals Chair of Military Construction, Army Engineer
School at Fort BeIvoir, Virginia.
In 1972 he was also cited by~oint Resolution No. 250 of
the House of Representatives and the Senate, State of Ten-
nessee. He received the Knight of the Golden Circle Award
of the Army and Navy Club of Washington and the Presi-
dent's and Honorary Member Award of the American Soci-
ety of Civil Engineers in 1979. General Vogel's military dec-
orations included the Distinguished Service Mecial and the
Legion of Merit.
His memberships were extensive and impressive. He was
elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1977. He
was an honorary member of the Public Works Historical So-
ciety ant! the Society of American Military Engineers; a fel-
low of the American Consulting Engineers Council; and an
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
honorary member of the Engineers Club of Pennsylvania. In
addition, General Vogel was a member of the Royal Society
of Arts in London, the Permanent International Association
of Navigation Congresses, the International Commission on
Large Dams, and the National Society of Professional Engi-
neers.
In reviewing General Vogel's accomplishments, Major
General Charles Noble (Ret.) completed his tribute by
stating:
Never one to retire from the business of humanity, Dr. (General) Vogel
died with his boots on, serving to the end the profession he loved. He
left behind a loving wife and family and thousands of professional and
personal friends. His funeral service at Arlington Cemetery was the
occasion for a large assemblage of the most distinguished and famous
crowd of professionals and high-ranking service personnel, friends,
and West Point classmates, a crowning tribute to the selfless life of a
great soldier, engineer, and public servant.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
mississippi river
