Rockwell, Alfred Perkins, 1834-1903

Mining engineer, professor at M.I.T. In Colorado summer 1871 to lead a student tour of the mining districts near Central City, Georgetown, and Golden City, with a side trip to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Mining engineer and soldier.

Mining engineer, army officer, and educator. Yale graduate, B.A. 1855, Ph.B. and M.A. 1858; Professor of Mining at Yale, 1865-1868.

Mining engineer, army officer, and educator.

Alfred Perkins Rockwell was a mining engineer. Having graduated from Yale in 1855, he studied mining engineering at Yale's Scheffield School for two years (A.M., 1858). Rockwell spent a year at the Museum of Practical Geology in London, and one year at the School of Mines, Freiberg, Saxony (Ph.B., 1857). He taught at Yale, 1865-1868, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1868-1873.

Alfred Perkins Rockwell, Yale graduate, B.A. 1855, Ph.B. and M.A. 1858, Yale professor of mining, 1865-1868.

Richard W. Thompson had been sole attorney for the Menominee Indians in claims against the United States for lands in Wisconsin.

Alfred Perkins Rockwell, Yale graduate, B.A. 1855, Ph.B. and M.A. 1858, Yale professor of mining, 1865-1868.

Richard W. Thompson had been sole attorney for the Menominee Indians in claims against the United States for lands in Wisconsin.

Born into a prominent Connecticut family, the geologist, educator, and industrialist Alfred Perkins Rockwell (1834-1903) was at turns a war hero, a professor, and a corporate executive. The son of a two-term Whig congressman, Rockwell received his AB from Yale in 1855, and remained in New Haven for his MA and PhB (1858) at the Sheffield Scientific School. Looking to build a foundation for a career in geology, he furthered his education by taking the standard European tour, spending time at the Museum of Practical Geology in London and at the prestigious Bergakademie at Freiberg, Saxony, where he studied metallurgy and coal geology. During his European sojourn, Rockwell also visited a succession of collieries in Northern England and Germany, familiarizing himself with advanced mining technology and with the economics of the industry.

At the outset of the Civil War, Rockwell returned to the United States and accepted a commission as Captain of the 1st Connecticut Light Artillery, earning a promotion to Colonel of the 6th Connecticut Infantry during the Petersburg Campaign of 1864 and finally a brevet to Brigadier General. He married Katharine Virginia Foote (1839-1902) after mustering out of the service in June 1865, and served briefly on the Board of Visitors at the U.S. Military Academy before returning to his alma mater as professor of mining at the Sheffield School. Barely three years later, he moved to a similar position at MIT, however by 1873, he made the decision to leave academia for other opportunities. In the aftermath of the devastating fire of 1872 that consumed much of downtown Boston, Rockwell was appointed Chairman of the Board of the Fire Commissioners in Boston, after which he served president of the Eastern Railroad (1876-1879) and from 1879 until his retirement in 1886, as treasurer of the Great Falls (N.H.) Manufacturing Co., a textile firm. Rockwell also earned income from land and other investments, including stock in the Minas Nuevas Mining Company, a lead and silver mining company in Mexico.

Never a prolific scholar, Rockwell wrote two books, Great Fires and Fire Extinction (Boston: Little, Brown, 1878) and Roads and Pavements in France (NY: Wiley, 1896). He and his wife had four children, of whom only one survived to adulthood: Mary Foote (1868-1868), Frances Beatrice (1872-1886), Samuel Edmund Foote (1873-1884), and Diana Ward (b. 1873). Rockwell died at his home in New Haven on Dec. 24, 1903.