Eugene S. Ferguson, 1916-2004

Abstract

Eugene Shallcross Ferguson, one of the Society for the History of Technology's founding members, its eleventh president (1977-78), and recipient of its Abbott Payson Usher Award (1969) and Leonardo da Vinci Medal (1977), died on 21 March 2004, after an extended illness. He is survived by his wife of fifty-six years, Josephine Mobley Ferguson, and three children, Daniel Ferguson of Babb, Montana, David Ferguson of Sheldrake, New York, and Judith Williams of Tucson, Arizona. Since 1979 he had been professor emeritus of history at the University of Delaware. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1916 and reared in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, Ferguson earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in 1937. At that time, Carnegie Tech's engineering program emphasized not only book learning but also practical experience, so the curriculum included regular plant tours an exciting thing for a young engineer-in-training in a heavily industrialized region once described as hell with the lid off.1 After graduating from Carnegie Tech, Ferguson held a variety of engineering positions, ranging from manufacturing planning engineer at Western Electric Company's Baltimore plant, to refinery operator at Gulf