Biography
Harry Bruce Walker was born in 1884. He began his professional career at Kansas State College where he first served as Extension Engineer before volunteering for military duty in 1917. After two years of service, he returned home and earned his Professional Civil Engineering Degree from Iowa State College. He then returned to Kansas State College in 1921 as Professor and Chair of the Agricultural Engineering Department. In 1928, he became the Chair of the Agricultural Engineering Division at the University of California, Davis.
Walker was actively involved with several important campus committees during his tenure and served in various leadership roles in professional organizations, notably the American Society of Agricultural Engineers. He was also heavily involved with two major research endeavors for the United States Department of Agriculture, and was appointed in 1928 by President Herbert Hoover as a delegate to Tokyo, Japan for the World Engineering Congress.
Walker's research interests included the mechanization and electrification of farms and machinery, the improvement of farming practices in general, water use issues and academic planning. During his tenure at UC Davis, Walker was instrumental in campus policy-making and academic curriculum planning, particularly during his involvement with the "Privilege and Tenure" Committee of the University's Academic Senate ("Loyalty Oath"), his activity in campus "Postwar Planning", and his involvement on the UC Davis committee for creating a College of Letters and Sciences. He died in 1957.
Sources
"Harry Bruce Walker." University of California: In Memoriam website. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb3r29n8f4/ Accessed December 19, 2006.
Scheuring, Ann F. Abundant harvest: the history of the University of California, Davis. Davis, CA: UC Davis History Project, 2001.
From the guide to the Harry B. Walker Papers, 1891-1958, (University of California, Davis. General Library. Department of Special Collections.)
