Scobey, Fred C. (Frederick Charles), 1880-1962

Biographical Information:

Fred Charles Scobey, the son of Orland B. and Helen (Strong) Scobey, was born in Greensburg, Ind., on January 20, 1880. He attended the University of Colorado (Boulder) in 1898 and 1899, Stanford University (Calif.) in 1900 and 1901, and the University of California (Berkeley) from 1918 to 1921. He was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Science in civil engineering, "with distinction," by Stanford University in 1931.

From 1901 through 1906, Mr. Scobey held positions as draftsman and computer in the City Engineer's Office, Denver, Colo. (1901); officeman, later draftsman and topographer, with the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co. (1902); officeman with the Union Pacific Railroad (1904); and officeman in the Chief Engineer's office of the St. Louis Rocky Mountain and Pacific Railroad, Raton, New Mexico (1904-1906). From 1906 to 1911, Mr. Scobey worked as office engineer for E.D. Shepard and Co., Raton, N.M.; as superintendent of Raton Water-Works, Raton Ice Co., and Raton Fuel Co.; as superintendent of construction for the Nevada Construction Co.; as office engineer for the San Luis Southern Railroad, Blanca, Colo.; as irrigation engineer for Imperial Water Companies Nos. 1-4-5-7-8, in Imperial Valley, Calif.; and as special agent for the U.S. Census Bureau's Census of Irrigation, Colo.

In 1911, Mr. Scobey accepted the position of irrigation engineer with the Department of Agriculture. He began work on the determination of the carrying capacity of irrigation canals and, later, of all types of conduits used in irrigation. He made field measurements on all types of channels throughout the West to determine their friction factors in Kutter's and Manning's formulas, and to determine the exponents for exponential formulas for pipes. These studies were printed by the Department of Agriculture.

Mr. Scobey died on July 19, 1962.

From: Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Vol. 128, Part V, 1963.

From the guide to the Fred. C. Scobey Papers, bulk 1914-1953, (Water Resources Collections and Archives)