Claybourn, John G., 1886-1967

Civil engineer, consultant on marine development and dredging, and superintendent of the dredging division of the Panama canal.

From the description of John G. Claybourn papers, 1908-1966. (University of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 34423275

John Geronold Claybourn was a civil engineer who rose in the service of the Panama Canal to become superintendent of the Dredging Division, a position he held from 1921 until his retirement in 1948. During his career on the canal and after his retirement, Claybourn was involved as a consultant in river and harbor improvement projects in several countries, primarily in Latin America.

Claybourn was born in 1886, the son of John B. and Ellen Clink Claybourn of Albert Lea, Minnesota. He attended the University of Minnesota, but did not graduate. In 1910 Claybourn travelled to Panama, where he took a surveying position on the Panama Canal. He transferred to the Dredging Division in 1914, and became superintendent in 1921.

As superintendent of the Dredging Division, Claybourn's activities included supervising maintenance work on the canal, particularly the clearing of landslides, acquisition and maintenance of dredging equipment, construction of the town of Gamboa, and planning for improvements to the canal. The chief improvements promoted by Claybourn were a 1930s plan to add a third set of locks, and a 1940s plan to replace the canal with a parallel sea-level canal.

In 1928 Claybourn married Elsie Greiser, a stenographer on the canal. Greiser had attained a measure of celebrity in her youth as a long-distance swimmer and canoeist.

While working on the canal, Claybourn also worked as a consultant on a variety of river and harbor improvement projects in the surrounding countries, beginning in 1917 when he began work on the Dique de Cartagena, a ship canal in Colombia. By the time of his retirement in 1948, he had consulted on projects in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Florida, and Panama. In the 1920s Claybourn also moonlighted on various private dredging projects, including, among others, the mining of the Panama Gold Dredging Company.

After his retirement from the Panama Canal in 1948, Claybourn continued to be active professionally, taking on consulting positions in Burma, Colombia, Guatemala, Panama, and Venezuela. His most important project was probably in Burma, where from 1951 to 1953 he worked to rebuild the transportation network on the Irrawaddy River that had been destroyed during World War II, and developed the Dalla Dockyards area near Rangoon.

On completion of his work in Burma, Claybourn and his wife moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, in order to live near her brother. He spent the rest of his life there, carrying on an active correspondence with colleagues from his years on the Panama Canal. Claybourn died in 1967.

From the guide to the John G. Claybourn Papers, 1908-1966, (Bentley Historical Library University of Michigan)