University of Massachusetts Amherst - Index Yearbook (Amherst, MA)

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:iD)(§©©(§ iin[[ n[M©M (Tbctrles Robert iDuncan GHARLES ROBERT DUNCAN was born at Newark, N. J., in 1884, and received his early education in private schools of that city. He early showed an aptitude for mathematics and won a prize for the highest standing in the subject. He then entered the high school of that city and V 33 graduated in 1902. Entering Rutgers College in the fall of the same year, he took up the study of Civil Engineering and received his B. S. degree in 1906. While in college he was a member of the Glee Club and its president during his senior year. He was also a member of the Chess Club at the college and played on his class baseball team. In June 1906, immediately after graduation, he entered the employ of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad in the engineering department, and was assigned to duties on construc- tion of the New York terminal then being built. This is without doubt the most com- plete and costly railroad terminal in the world and while on this work, he gained much experience in practical construction. His duties were varied, and he was successively engaged at surveying, locating forms, office work, and inspection of construction. Dur- ing the last few months of his connection with that work, he was in the employ of the contractor as assistant to the night superintendent. In June, 1908, he was engaged as Instructor in the Department of Mathematics and Civil Engineering at this College and entered upon his work here in September of that year. His training and experience made him at once a valuable man in that department. Altho he has devoted his time to teaching while at the college, he was engaged in pro- fessional work during the summer vacations of 1910 and 1911. During the summer of 1910 he assisted Mr. G. M. Tompson in making a valua- tion of the Boston Maine Railroad property in New Hampshire. All of the system ' s lines in that state were gone over in about two months, and an estimate made of the prop- erty and cost of about twenty-five different roads in the state, embraced in the B. M. system. As a result of the work the railroad won its suit against the state for a reduc- tion of assessment. During the past summer he was employed on construction of the extension of the Florida East Coast Railway from Knights Key to Key West. Coming to this institution a stranger three years ago, by his quiet manner and sym- pathetic attitude, he has won the respect and good will of the student body and the esteem of his associates on the faculty. j p OSTRANDFR