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Biography

FREDERICK HORACE TIBBETTS, M. Am. Soc. C. E. Memoir prepared by Ralph G. Wadsworth, M. Am. Soc. C. E.

DIED AUGUST 2, 1938

Fred H. Tibbetts will probably be best remembered for his extensive flood-control, reclamation, and irrigation work in the Sacramento Valley and his highly successful water-conservation project in the Santa Clara Valley. However, his field of activity during a period of some thirty years of engineering practice extended well beyond the limits of the State of California, and embraced many of the varied branches of the profession. Few engineers in the history of California have contributed so extensively to the development of its agricultural lands and the control and conservation of its waters.

Frederick Horace Tibbetts, the elder of the two sons of Horace Albert and Manda (Arnold) Tibbetts, was born at Oshkosh, Wis., on April 28, 1882. The family moved west when he was ten years old and settled in Santa Clara County, California. He attended the College of the Pacific, then at San José, Calif., and received his degree of Bachelor of Science in 1903. He continued his studies during the following three and one half years at the University of California, at Berkeley, Calif., receiving a degree of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1904, and a degree of Master of Science in 1907. In the meantime, he had received a degree of Master of Science from the College of the Pacific in 1905.

While doing his graduate work at the University of California, he also served on the faculty as an assistant in civil engineering in the fall of 1904 and again in the academic year 1906-1907. In 1905 and the spring of 1906, he was an instructor in mechanics at the California School of Mechanical Arts in San Francisco. In August, 1907, he was appointed instructor in civil engineering at the University of California, and in July, 1909, became an associate professor, which position he held until 1911. He was elected to membership in three scholarship fraternities: Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi, and Sigma Iota Phi.

Mr. Tibbetts' active professional work commenced immediately after he received his first college degree and continued concurrently with his advanced studies and his teaching. Early engagements included surveys in Santa Clara and Alameda counties (1903), irrigation and drainage investigations (1904), and well measurements and surveys (1905). From 1906 to 1909 he was in charge of artesian investigations in Livermore Valley and the Pleasanton Reclamation Project.

In 1909, Mr. Tibbetts entered into a partnership with Perry A. Haviland, county surveyor of Alameda County, which lasted for nine years. The firm operated under the name of Haviland and Tibbetts, except in 1913 and 1914, during which period the name was changed to Haviland, Dozier and Tibbetts. The firm designed and supervised the construction of a wide variety of projects throughout central and northern California. During this period, Mr. Tibbetts was in charge of reports, estimates, designs, and supervision of construction of sewage systems and sewage disposal works for numerous cities and towns. He also handled designs, estimates, and reports on extensive harbor improvements at Richmond and South San Francisco, a highway system in Santa Barbara County, a filtered water supply for the City of Richmond, and all of the larger reclamation projects in Yolo Basin lying west of the Sacramento River above and below the City of Sacramento. The latter projects, particularly Reclamation Districts Nos. 900 and 999, which Mr. Tibbetts designed and in part supervised, included massive levees, drainage canals, and pumping plants. He also supervised extensive improvements of a similar nature in Reclamation District No. 70 in the upper part of Sutter Basin.

In November, 1912, Mr. Tibbetts submitted (on behalf of the firm of Haviland and Tibbetts from a branch office which had been opened in San Franciso) a report on the Knights Landing Ridge Cut, which had a major influence on the reclamation of the upper part of the Sacramento Valley. The cut, which forms an artificial outlet for flood waters in Colusa Basin, was sufficiently completed to be of immense benefit during the great 1915 flood. The project required more than 3,000,000 cu yd of excavation and the construction of highway and railroad bridges and various other structures. This work was followed immediately by the construction of major flood-protection levees and drainage systems in Colusa Basin, including particularly the construction of 50 miles of river levee between Knights Landing and Colusa.

In 1918, the firm of Haviland and Tibbetts was dissolved because of Mr. Haviland's ill health, and Mr. Tibbetts took over the San Francisco office under his own name. He continued as chief engineer of the Colusa Basin projects, previously undertaken for Reclamation District No. 108, the Sacramento River West Side Levee District, and the Knights Landing Ridge Drainage District. These three districts, which overlapped in part, provided complete flood protection for more than 100,000 acres of land which had been subject to frequent flooding by both river overflow and foothill drainage. In addition, Reclamation District No. 108 provided a complete drainage system and five separate irrigation systems for its 58,000 acres.

Mr. Tibbetts also became chief engineer of four additional large reclamation districts; two important water conservation districts; seven irrigation districts, including the two largest ones in the Sacramento Valley; two large land development companies; and a hydroelectric power company at Anchorage, Alaska. For all of these projects, and numerous other smaller ones, he prepared reports, estimates, and designs, and actively supervised construction, performed usually by contract, but in a few instances by force account. Included among the projects were several of the largest gravity intakes and pumping plants on the Sacramento River: the first wood screw pumps in California; irrigation and drainage canals with capacities to 1,500 cu ft per see, constructed with floating dredges; levees built by the world's largest clamshell dredges, and others built with suction dredges; two steam-electric generating plants; the first modern rock-fill dam in California, 160 ft high; five concrete arch dams; seven earth-fill dams; and innumerable incidental structures such as bridges, headgates, siphons, flumes, roads, etc.

Among the various irrigation projects, two were particularly outstanding for their magnitude, their comprehensive planning, and their widespread public benefit. The Nevada Irrigation District in Nevada County, California, developed a water supply by diversion and storage at high elevation in the mountains and made a long-term contract for sale of the energy content of the falling water on such a basis as to amortize the full cost of the mountain works, thereby giving the agricultural lands at lower elevation what amounted to a free water supply. The mountain works included a 4-mile diversion tunnel, 85,000 acre-ft of storage, and an 11-mile conduit in rough terrain which required numerous flumes and tunnels. The irrigation distribution system included two large concrete diversion dams as well as many miles of canals and numerous structures. Total construction costs amounted to about $7,000,000.

The second outstanding irrigation project was one undertaken for the Santa Clara Valley Water Conservation District for the purpose of replenishing the underground water supply. The district, largely planted to orchards, was irrigated almost entirely by pumping from wells and, to 1934, the ground-water table had been dropping continuously at the rate of about 5 ft per yr until some of the pumping lifts were in excess of 200 ft. This condition was remedied by the construction of six detention reservoirs in the foothills and various regulating and distributing works in stream beds designed to retard runoff and induce percolation into the underground storage basin. A definite rise of the ground-water level has been experienced since completion of this work. The total cost of this project was about $3,000,000.

In addition to his engagements as engineer in complete charge of construction projects, Mr. Tibbetts was also employed as a consultant by many public and private agencies, including two irrigation districts in Nevada, a water conservation district in Arizona, four California cities, several land development companies and contracting firms, and numerous individuals and organizations. His services in connection with these engagements covered a wide variety of activities, including design of dams, investigation of water supplies, both surface and underground, subdivisions, irrigation systems, sewage disposal plans, habor studies, water-works appraisals, and expert court testimony in water rights and other litigation. He made an extensive appraisal of the water rights and physical works of Miller and Lux, Inc., and the San Joaquin and Kings River Canal Company, and appraised the lands flooded by the Pardee Dam of the East Bay Municipal Utility District. He designed the Hogan flood-control dam on the Calaveras River for the City of Stockton, Calif. He directed final construction work for the contractors on the Wawona tunnel in Yosemite Valley and advised other contractors on tunnel problems. He was employed by the State Department of Public Works as a consultant on the Sacramento Valley unit of the Statewide Water Plan.

In spite of his very active professional practice, Mr. Tibbetts found time for many civic and fraternal duties. He was chairman of the Irrigation Section of the Commonwealth Club of California for three years (1925-1927), and was an occasional speaker for the Regional Planning Association of San Francisco (1925-1926). He was an active Mason, being a Past Commander of Oakland Commandery, Knights Templar, and holding office at the time of his death in Durant Lodge, in Berkeley, and Islam Temple of the Shrine, in San Francisco. He belonged to the University Club, Engineers' Club, and Olympic Club of San Francisco, and at times was a member of the Athens Club of Oakland, the Sutter Club of Sacramento, and the Arizona Club of Phoenix, Ariz. He was also a member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the American Geophysical Union.

Mr. Tibbetts was married, first, to Edith Jean MacKerricher (in 1905), and second to Flora McDonald, who died only a few weeks prior to his own death. He is survived by his son by his first marriage, D. Reginald Tibbetts, and by his brother, Sydney A. Tibbetts.

During his active career, Mr. Tibbetts established a reputation as a keen thinker and a fluent speaker. He was unusually adept in presenting engineering problems to lay clients through both the written and spoken word. He had marvelous capacity for mastering and remembering intricate details of engineering theory and practice. He was a delightful companion and had a host of friends and acquaintances. He read extensively on a wide range of subjects and was particularly well informed on the strategy of the major military engagements of history. His hobbies were farming, photography, and aeronantics.

Mr. Tibbetts took a keen interest in Society affairs and contributed discussions on many subjects. He served on several important committees of the San Francisco Section and was a member of the Executive Committee of the Irrigation Division of the Society in 1927, 1928, and 1929, serving as chairman for the last two years.

Mr. Tibbetts was elected a Junior of the American Society of Civil Engineers on May 1, 1906; an Associate Member on April 6, 1909; and a Member on September 11, 1917.

From Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, v. 105 (1940), pp. 1924-1928.