Mears, Frederick, 1878-1939

Frederick Mears was a United States (U.S.) Army engineer. He was a graduate of the Shattuck Military School in Faribault, Minnesota. He enlisted in the Army in 1899 and was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in 1901. He followed his father in a military career and was assigned to the cavalry branch, but spent much of his career as an army engineer. He worked on bridge building in Panama during the construction of the Panama Canal (1908-1914) and became the chief engineer and superintendent of the Panama Railroad (1914-1918). Mears became the chief engineer for the Alaskan Engineering Commission in charge of construction and operation the U.S. government railroad in Alaska (1919-1923). He retired from the Army as a colonel in 1923. He then was the chief engineer with the St. Paul Union Depot Company (1923-1925) and worked on the Northern Railroad (1925-1939). Mears died in 1939.