(ANGUS1, JESSIE2, CHARLES3)
and
LETTIE PALMER HEATON
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Francis (Frank) Murray Dawson was born the 3rd September, 1889 at Truro, Colchester, Nova Scotia. He was the son of Charles Murray Dawson and Ellen Dickie. From this beginning in Nova Scotia his achievements were many and were a credit to his great-grandparents, Angus and Elizabeth Murray who first came to Canada seeking a better life. Frank received his primary and secondary education in Truro and when he was sixteen he began to work for the C.N. Railway at Truro. He was a rodman, chainman, and instrument man during this time. In 1906 Frank attended Nova Scotia Technical College in Halifax and obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering in 1910. From 1910 to 1912 he was an instructor at the Nova Scotia Technical College in Halifax starting at the salary of $900 a year and ending up at $1200 a year. In 1912 Frank went to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York to work on his Master's degree in Civil Engineering. During the summers he continued to work at various jobs on Railway Construction and municipal engineering as he had for every summer starting in 1906. He worked for the Transcontinental and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway.
At Cornell he studied in the area of hydraulics and in 1913 he was awarded the degree of Master of Civil Engineering. Frank returned to Nova Scotia and worked for the C.N. Railway in Dock Construction as a Construction Engineer. His salary at this time was $1800 per annum. From 1915 - 1919 Frank served in the Overseas Military Services. He went to England as a 1st Lieutenant in the 40th Battalion serving on Canadian Headquarters' staff. Later he served as 1st Lieutenant with the 5th Field co. of Engineers and Captain and Adjutant in the 8th Battalion of Engineers. He was awarded the Canadian Military Cross and held an even rarer medal, awarded to his battalion as the only unit to enter Ville de Mons before Armistice Day. Frank returned from overseas as a married man. He and Lettie Palmer Heaton were married on the 11th January 1919 at Datchet, Buckingham, England. After the war, Frank became a member of the firm of Marks, Manhard & Dawson in Montreal and Toronto. At the same time he was a part time Research Engineer for Super Cement Company. In 1921 Frank, Lettie and their son, John Howard Heaton Dawson, left Canada and did not return except for short visits. For the 1921-1922 school year Frank was Acting Assistant Professor of Hydraulics at Cornell University at Ithaca, New York. From 1922 to 1928 Frank was Assistant, Associate and Professor of Hydraulics at the University of Kansas at Lawrence, Kansas. Two more children were born while the family lived in Kansas: Murray Heaton Dawson and Susan Palmer Dawson. Sadly Susan passed away in 1928. While at the University of Kansas , Frank was made Men-Student Advisor (1926 -1928) and it turned out that he had a knack for working with young students. A daughter, Ursula Jean Dawson, was added to the family. Once again the family moved on. Frank accepted a position with the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Wisconsin. He was Professor of Hydraulics and from 1932 to 1936 was in charge of the Department of Hydraulic and Sanitation Engineering. From "Memoir of Francis Murray Dawson 1889 - 1963" by Hunter Rouse some of his accomplishments are mention: At Wisconsin he had the responsibility, in addition to other teaching duties, of operating the new laboratories of hydraulic and sanitary engineering. This was a discouraging task at best, for in the early years of the depression even meager funds were difficult to raise. It was indicative of his growing skill at combining education with practice that he was able to develop and support a part-time testing staff numbering as many as a dozen students at a time. At least fifteen of them remained there-after in engineering teaching and research. And the primary subject of their investigations - elimination of health hazards and improvement of standards in the plumbing industry - gradually came to involve the reeducation of technicians throughout the country. At the University of Wisconsin he was earning $4500.00 per annum. While in Madison a daughter, Alice Letitia Dawson was born. There was one more move for the Dawson family. On July 1, 1936 Frank assumed the position of Dean of the College of Engineering at the State University of Iowa in Iowa City. As well as doing the administration of the College he taught the orientation course to freshmen and taught advanced courses in Hydraulics. From "Memoir of Francis Murray Dawson 1889 - 1963" by Hunter Rouse: The Dean's first task as an administrator at Iowa was that of securing increased appropriations to bring the staff out of the financial depression then prevailing and to fix academic loads at such a level as to provide opportunity for faculty research and writing. During the war years he played an important part in administering various training programs, not only locally but also as a member of national advisory boards. Following these hectic years, he presented to the engineering faculty a plan of raising entrance requirements and broadening education in the humanities, through cooperation with liberal arts colleges. Such a move required both courage and conviction, for it was certain to reduce enroliments until neighboring institutions followed suit. Nevertheless, the plan was accepted and put into operation, with very satisfactory results. Throughout his administration the Dean emphasized the democratic - as opposed to the autocratic - conduct of affairs to an extreme degree. All matters of policy were brought before the faculty as a whole for discussion and final action, and new appointments were widely considered before being made. Whereas this method is surely no more efficient than any other democratic process, the engineering faculty at Iowa was known to have the strongest esprit de corps of any on the campus - although,' to be sure,'the Dean's willingness to delegate authority to subordinates and then to back them solidly in any endeavor surely had an equally salutary effect. In partial recompense, he saw members of his staff elected to the presidency of engineering-education and other professional societies, appointed as deans and department heads at various universities, and selected for a number of national honors. From the above mentioned Memoir we learn his role as a Civilian Professional Consultant during World War II.: His part in the second war began with membership on various committees and boards charged with the formulation of policy on selective service and military training. It culminated in the chairmanship of the National Defense Research Council committee responsible for organizing and directing at Iowa City one of the two plants established in the nation to develop proximity fuses for unrified projectiles. This was as heavy a burden mentally and physically as it was successful technically, involving as it did the assembling and equipping in a very short time of a group of expert scientists and engineers with an ultimate staff of about 1000 people. He became a naturalised citizen of the U.S. at the Johnson County Court in Iowa City on the 9th May 1944. Frank was able to make two trips to Vancouver, B.C. to visit his brother. In 1946 he went for three weeks and in 1950 had a one-week visit. In 1951 Francis M. Dawson had two Honorary Doctorate degrees conferred upon him. Both Syracuse University and the Nova Scotia Technical College honored him. In 1952 Frank accepted a Fulbright assignment to lecture for several months in the Punjab College of Engineering and Technology at Lahore, Pakistan. He was there from Jan. 15, 1952 to May 24, 1952. He arranged to bring a member of the Punjab teaching staff to the University of Iowa for doctoral training and research in engineering education. In 1955 President Eisenhower appointed Frank to a three-year term on the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Military Academy. Francis Murray Dawson was named Engineer of the Month in the professional engineering publication "The Central Constructor". He was listed in "Who's Who in Engineering 1959. In January 1959 Dean Dawson suffered a stroke which left him paralysed on his left side and he retired as Dean in February 1959. He was still able to receive friends in his home and visit his children until a final stroke in March 1963. He died the 23rd March 1963. Mrs. Dawson died 7 Jan. 1982. She was buried at Madison, Wisconsin along with her husband and daughter. Francis Murray Dawson was an energetic man and was able to accomplish much. He held membership and served in many organisations which are listed in this article. Some of his publications are listed further on. May 1957 page 15 Working on a roundhouse one doesn't acquire a habit of cutting corners. There are no corners to cut and there are no corners to cut and there are no corners in which to hide from work itself.
Dean Francis Murray Dawson of the College of Engineering , State University of Iowa, at Iowa City started very early in live as a construction worker in a railroad round house project. Perhaps because his father was a railroad man and whatever symbolism there may be in such a beginning - whatever indoctrination toward a lifetime of thoroughness and energetic readiness to do more than one's own share - is strikingly exemplified in the career which has followed that roundhouse introduction to the world of engineering and hard work. He has cut no corners ..... He has sought no corners in which to escape the demands of a highly developed sense of responsibility to this profession, to society, and to the future. If indeed, Dean Dawson has paid any attention to corners at all, it was to help dispell the darkness that lurked in them..... LETTIE HEATON DAWSON CEDAR RAPIDS - Lettie Heaton Dawson, 93, of Cedar Rapids, a former resident of Iowa City, died Thursday after a short illness. Private services will be held at First Presbyterian Church in Cedar Rapids. Burial will be in Forest Hill Cemetery, Madison, Wisc. In lieu of flowers friends may donate to the Meth-Wick Manor Memorial Fund or the First Presbyterian Church, both in Cedar Rapids. Mrs. Dawson married Frances M. Dawson, Engineering dean for many years at the University of Iowa, on Jan. 22, 1919 in Datchet, England. She was a member of the Rephael Club and the Nineteenth Century Club, both in Iowa City. Survivors include two daughters, two sons, 12 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren. (Iowa City Press Citizen, January 9, 1982) FRANCIS MURRAY DAWSON - Membership In Organisations Honorary
Triangle* ( 1926- ) *This to a national engineering fraternity and has no connection with the Triangle Club of the State University of Iowa Societies and Associations
(President, 1940) ( 1936- ) (Awarded the first *Distinguished Achievement Award" on February 27,1957) (President, 1937)
(formerly, the Society for the promotion of Engineering Education( (Vice President, 1946-48; 1948-50) (President 1950-51) (President 1946-48 Chairman, 1948-50)
Director 1942-46
Text Book - HYDRAULICS by Schoder
& Dawson, 1927. Bulletins - Interior water Supply
Piping for Residential
Buildings by Dawson Bowman, 1933. - Sections on Surface Water Resources, Water for Human Consumption and Industrial Use,. and Organic Pollution of Waters In University of Wisconsin publication, "Conservation of Wisconsin Waters". 1936. - Cross-Connections In Plumbing and Water-Supply Systems, co-editor with F. R. King. (Wisconsin State Department of Health Publication), 1937. - Hydraulics and Pneumatics of the Plumbing and Drainage Systems by Dawson & Kalinske, (State University of Iowa Publication). 1937. - Report on Plumbing Cross-connections and Back-siphonage Research, Dawson and Kalinske, (No. 1, National Association of Master Plumbers publication, Washington, D.C.), 1938. - Report on Hydraulics and Pneumatics of the Plumbing Drainage System by Dawson and Kalinske (No. 2, National Association of Master Plumbers publication, Washington D.C.), 1939. - Water-Supply Piping for the Plumbing System, by F. M. Dawson and A. A. Kalinske 1942. (No. 3, National Association of Master Plumbers publication, Washington, D.C.) Sections & Chapters - Hydraulic Section in the O'Rourke's General Engineering Handbook, 1932. Revised 1940 Reviewed and revised the chapter entitled, "Water Services" in the 1950 and 1951 editions of Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Guide during the summer of 1949 and 1950 Codes - Assisted In the preparation of the following Codes: Wisconsin State Well Drilling Sanitary Code, 1936 Wisconsin State Plumbing Code, 1937 National Plumbing Code, 1949-51 American Standards Code A-4O, 7, adopted 1948 American Standards Code A,40, 8, revised 1954 Articles, papers. reports - has written and/or cooperated in the writing of numerous technical articles, papers, and reports which have been published in various current technical magazines.
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