Riggs, Henry Earle, 1865-

Professor of civil engineering at University of Michigan.

Born on May 8, 1853 in Lawrence, Kansas, Henry E. Riggs graduated in 1886 from the University of Kansas with the degree of A.B., after a five-year literary and engineering course. In 1910 he received the degree of C.E. from the University of Michigan. On graduation from the University of Kansas he entered railway service as a axman on the B. & M. Railroad in Nebraska. In the fall of 1887 he entered the service of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. From March 1, 1890, to January 1, 1896, he was Chief Engineer of the Ann Arbor Railroad. From 1896 to 1912 he was a member of the Riggs and Sherman Company of Toledo, Ohio, engaged in design and construction of sewerage, water works, paving, electric railway and industrial railroads.

In 1900 he was one of the two principal assistants of Mortimer E. Cooley on the Michigan appraisal of railroad properties. His career since then was largely devoted to problems of valuation and depreciation of railroads. He was consulting engineer on valuation matters for the states of Michigan, New York, and Georgia; for a number of municipalities; and for railroads, including the New York Central System, the Illinois Central System, the Norfolk and Western, the Virginian, the Union Pacific, the St. Louis-San Francisco, and the Pere Marquette.

From 1912 to 1930 Riggs was professor and head of the department of civil engineering of the University of Michigan. On June 30, 1930, he retired with the title of Honorary Professor of Civil Engineering.

Riggs died July 5, 1949.