Burger, William J.

William Henry Burger, Sr., was born in 1874 in Caribou, Colorado and graduated from the University of Colorado. He taught at the University and later went to work for the engineering corps of the Colorado and Northwest Railway. He joined the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey (U.S.C. & G.S.) in 1897 and remained with that organization until 1910. He traveled from Maine to Alaska while surveying and photographed the landscapes. In 1901, he was the surveyor/recorder aboard the U.S.C. & G.S. Sr. Gedney, when the Alaskan Coast was being surveyed. Later he joined the engineering faculty of Northwestern University, was promoted to full professorship in 1915. He served until 1939 when he retired and became professor emeritus. He married Elizabeth Shotwell in 1912 and had a son and daughter. He was a fellow of the American Geophysical Union. William Burger died in Evanston, Ill., in 1962.