Digest>Archives> Jul/Aug 2011

George Rockwell Putnam

Commissioner, Bureau of Lighthouses

By Judi Kearney

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George Rockwell Putnam, Commissioner, Bureau of ...

He was a brilliant engineer. He started drawing maps when he was in grade school. He had extensive experience with the Coast Survey. He paid attention to the smallest of details. And - he cared about people. These attributes made George Rockwell Putnam the perfect choice to oversee the transfer of the United States Lighthouse Board, from a group primarily of military men, to the United States Bureau of Lighthouses, which would be under civilian leadership. President Taft had chosen wisely… and well.

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The first six boys of Charles and Mary Louisa ...

For 25 years, George Putnam served as Commissioner of the United States Bureau of Lighthouses. He chose employees based on merit rather than political affiliation, improved the lives of countless lighthouse keepers, insisted on constant improvements and upgrades to equipment, and earned the respect of Washington politicians. He was conservative, but kind; forward-thinking, but cautious; and he was able to combine engineering and science to benefit the growing maritime industries. Indeed, George R. Putnam was a true pioneer, and that pioneer spirit began very early in his life.

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George Putnam’s childhood home, Woodlawn in ...

EARLY LIFE: Born on May 24, 1865, George Rockwell Putnam was the sixth of eleven children born to Charles Edwin and Mary Louisa (Duncan) Putnam in Davenport, Iowa. His maternal grandfather, Joseph Duncan, was a Congressman who went on to become Illinois’s fifth governor. His father had a successful law practice and was also involved in local banking and a number of other business ventures.

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George R. Putnam, far left, is shown with his ...

The family home sat on a high bluff, overlooking the Mississippi. In his book, Sentinel of the Coasts: The Log of a Lighthouse Engineer, Putnam wrote of his fascination and respect for THE RIVER, saying, “To those of us who lived beside it, it needed no other designation.” Drawn to exploration from a very young age, George spent hours building small boats and trekking the rapids and tributaries of the river. He drew maps on his excursions, and kept them for future reference. He had a small group of friends who shared his spirit of adventure, and their travels were documented in the journals that George kept. A newspaper article once told of the river rescue of a group of boys. As George remembered, the story seemed exaggerated when published. Thankfully, the reporter was a family acquaintance, and the names of the young voyagers were omitted. George did not believe that they were in danger; however, they did need assistance getting back to shore.

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Mechanical Engineers, Class of 1890, Rose ...

With ten siblings, there were always Putnam children walking the two miles to a red brick grammar school, and later, to the local high school. Education continued at home and was emphasized by Mr. and Mrs. Putnam. The family was involved in the development of Davenport’s Academy of Natural Sciences, one of the first museums established west of the Mississippi. Named for George’s family, today it is called the Putnam Museum of History and Natural Sciences, and the Putnams were active in the museum’s early administration.

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H. S. Pritchett, Director, Coast & Geodetic ...

George’s father collected a very extensive library – once described in great detail in the local newspaper. The children were encouraged to read regularly; they also received instructions in carpentry, gardening, athletics, and the sciences. George enjoyed working with his hands, and considered him-self a jack of all trades. He liked building, tinkering, designing, and home remodeling - a hobby he would enjoy throughout his life.

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Charles Nagel, who was Secretary of Commerce and ...

After his high school graduation, George and two of his friends loaded three homemade canoes with camping equipment and travelled almost 400 miles, mapping the river on their way. In his journal, George detailed those sixteen days on the river: the loggers they met and shared meals with, sleeping in a floating canoe, and (can you believe it?) dipping a cup into the Mississippi to get a cool drink on a hot afternoon. All too soon, the adventure was over and George began another chapter in the life of a pioneer.

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President William Howard Taft with military aid, ...

THE EDUCATION CONTINUES: After returning from his Mississippi River adventure, George took a job driving spikes for the railroad survey, saving money so that he could study engineering at Rose Polytechnic Institute in Indiana. George and several of his brothers attended Rose, and George kept a meticulous scrapbook of his time at the Institute. At graduation in 1890, George was awarded the prestigious Heminway gold medal for achieving the highest grade during the entire course. While at Rose, George became acquainted with the Institute’s president, Dr. Thomas C. Mendenhall. When his course of study was completed, George was offered a position with the Coast and Geodetic Survey in Washington, D.C. Dr. Mendenhall had recently been appointed head of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and was aware of George’s keen interest in map and chart-making. George spent the next 20 years involved with the Coast Survey creating charts and maps. In the years following his graduation from Rose Polytechnic (now called Rose-Hulman), Putnam furthered his education with a Master’s degree in 1895. He received an Honorary Doctor of Engineering Degree from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1933.

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The Department of Commerce Building as it ...

THE COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY: Putnam travelled to every state and every territory. He was a member of the team that surveyed Alaska’s southeastern boundaries with Canada. He worked the southern border of New Mexico, Arizona, and California. He joined the team working on the 1200 miles of water boundary up the St. Lawrence River through the Great Lakes. Working as a field surveyor for MIT in 1896, he joined Admiral Peary on an expedition to Greenland to get the great meteorite at Cape York. In 1897, he spent several months surveying the Pribilof Islands, 200 miles southwest of Cape Newenham, drawing topographic maps to use in the Bering Sea fur seal trade.

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The new Department of Commerce Building as in ...

The summers of 1898 and 1899 gave Putnam the opportunity to experience the Gold Rush. While surveying and mapping the mouth of the Yukon River, he observed the masses of would-be miners hoping to strike it rich. The onslaught of gold seekers only served to call attention to the need for accurate, detailed maps for both passenger and cargo ships into the Klondike.

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George Putnam in his office from a photo that ...

After ten years of experience with the Coast and Geodetic Survey, Putnam was asked by then Director H. S. Pritchett to take charge of Coast Surveys in the Philippines. In this capacity, he organized all work surveying the coasts of the islands and making charts. Commerce in the Philippines depended heavily on water transportation, but they had only the most basic charts to guide them. Putnam gathered equipment and left for Manila in November, 1900. In July 1901, William Howard Taft was inaugurated as the first civil governor of the Philippines, which was at that time a U.S. Territory. Putnam met and communicated his work with Governor Taft, and forged a relationship that would guide Putnam’s future. He continued his work in the Philippines for six years; during that time over 160 accurate charts were published. In 1906, he was directed to return to the States, and was offered the position of being in charge of preparing and authenticating coast charts for the United States. Putnam had been offered positions in several technical government bureaus, such as the organization of the Bureau of Standards; Chief of the Geodetic Division of the Survey; and later, the position of Superintendent of the entire Coast and Geodetic Survey. But it was in his work on the U.S. coast charts that created his interest in lighthouses.

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The Washington, D.C. home of George and Marta ...

In June of 1910, Commerce and Labor Secretary Charles Nagel requested a meeting with Putnam. They discussed the new Lighthouse Law; its goal was to simplify, in government organization and operation, the work of overseeing and maintaining all United States aids to navigation. The new law transferred responsibility of the old U.S. Lighthouse Board, primarily having been managed by military personnel, to a new civilian Bureau of Lighthouses that would operate under the Department of Commerce. Would Putnam consider this appointment? With just one week before the law took effect, George Rockwell Putnam took just 24 hours to consider the challenge put before him. He accepted the position of Commissioner of Lighthouses, and was duly appointed by President William Howard Taft. He was the first civilian to hold such an appointment. The new Commissioner was assured by the Secretary and the President that this new Bureau of Lighthouses would stand independent of political interference and partisanship. When President Taft congratulated Putnam on his appointment, he requested simply that the work be done so as to justify the law.

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George Putnam’s daughter Elizabeth, center with ...

THE WORK BEGINS IN EARNEST: From the start, George Putnam believed that his success in this new venture hinged primarily on his ability to detach himself from politics – internal and external – both in the appointments he made and throughout his work. He adhered to a basic principle: seek out and hire and best available individual for the job as he saw it. Washington politicians, however, were convinced that this new Bureau of Lighthouses would soon fall victim to politics. In a letter to the editor of a daily New York paper, Admiral Robley Evans alleged that politics would be the downfall of the new law, with the headline, “The Lighthouse for Party Spoils: The Lustre of a Brilliant Service to be obscured by the Fog of Party Patronage.”

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George Putnam, (far left), Commissioner of the ...

Fortunately for George Putnam, the new law allowed a transition period of up to two years for the replacement of the naval inspectors and army engineers. This gave Putnam time to search for qualified individuals. His first challenge was to find 16 lighthouse inspectors, who he re-titled superintendents. It took several years before Putnam was able to fully staff the Bureau of Lighthouses, but in the end, he found competent, experienced men to serve as superintendents, engineers, keepers, and masters of tenders. He added a new district to care for the lighthouses and buoys in and around Alaska. He proudly claimed that no appointment was made due to political influence or consideration.

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The Board of the National Geographic Society. ...

During these early years in Washington, D.C., Putnam’s personal life was beginning a new chapter. As the family story goes, Putnam was travelling on a transcontinental train, possibly on his way home from inspecting West Coast or Alaskan lights. On this train, he met Norwegian-born Marta Wick Aresvik, a teacher in Washington State. She was on her way to visit family in Minnesota. Although he was 18 years her senior, a courtship began, and they were married at a family home in Worthington, Minnesota on September 11, 1913. They moved to Washington, D.C., and soon purchased a home at 2126 Bancroft Place. They became active in social circles, entertaining and hosting the Washington elite. They raised two daughters, Elizabeth Duncan Putnam and Kristi Aresvik Putnam, who were presented to members of society. Putnam became a founding member of the Board of the National Geographic Society, President of the Cosmos Club, and a long-standing member of the Metropolitan Club. His wife Marta became active in the suffrage movement, even hosting a tea with Mrs. Alexander Graham Bell.

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Kilden, George Putnam’s summer and retirement ...

25 YEARS OF DEDICATION TO LIGHTHOUSES: Throughout his 25 years as Commissioner, Putnam demanded excellence and received respect. The respect came not only from his employees, but also from members of both houses of Congress. On a number of occasions, Putnam received appeals from politicians for placement favors. He maintained strict adherence to the merit system guidelines set forth by civil service laws. He wrote, “Men and women in such work as that of the Lighthouse Service must have a deep devotion to duty, and a willingness to accept risks, and these qualities they have shown. In return, they rightfully look for impartial treatment.” Putnam’s employees were indeed dedicated to their work. And Putnam was dedicated to his employees. He devoted a full chapter of his book to the stories and letters from lighthouse keepers – memorabilia he kept even after his retirement in 1935. Space only permits a few of his memorable tales. A young gentleman, Mr. Malone was part of the construction crew that built Isle Royale Lighthouse on Lake Superior. He applied for the keeper position, and was told by the inspector that a married man was needed for the position of head keeper. Mr. Malone went ashore, promptly got married and came back to raise 12 children at the light. The Malones adopted a tradition of naming the newest child after each Inspector – until the time when there were three different Inspectors in one year!

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Bureau of Lighthouse executives with George ...

As a reward for excellent service, keepers who maintained good records were given a special duty – to care for the lighthouse exhibit at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. The keeper from Oregon’s Tillamook Rock Lighthouse accepted his assignment to the Exposition; and within several days, asked to be sent back to the Rock. He was worried about the light! A few years later, upon this same keeper’s retirement, he requested special permission to continue to live on Tillamook Rock for the rest of his life!

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Tombstone of George Rockwell Putnam and Marta ...

From the sublime to the ridiculous, Putnam received a letter in May of 1912. In the aftermath of the Titanic disaster, a concerned citizen wrote a letter suggesting that automatic flashing lights be placed on all icebergs, thus warning transatlantic ships of danger.

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Tombstone of George Rockwell Putnam and Marta ...

Putnam instituted the policy that every light station, buoy, and vessel be inspected annually by the Superintendent. Repeat or follow-up inspections could be delegated to assistants. He also brought all Superintendents together every two years or so to discuss issues in maintenance and engineering. Putnam himself inspected the district offices and depots on a regular basis. He also made inspections to the lighthouse tenders, traveling on them as they performed their work. He often brought his daughters on these journeys when their school schedules permitted time away from their home in Washington.

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The Putnam Museum of History and Natural Sciences ...

In 1932, Putnam ordered the building of several new lighthouse tenders, including the Arbutus, and the Lilac. His daughter, Elizabeth, christened the Arbutus on March 25, 1933. Daughter Kristi christened the Lilac on May 26, 1933.

George Putnam worked tirelessly to strengthen and enhance the benefits allotted to employees of the Bureau of Lighthouses, which by then was more commonly known as the U.S. Lighthouse Service. He lobbied to change the laws which restricted their pay, increased their food and fuel allowances, structured retirement and hospital benefits, and provided compensation for job-related injuries. He was also very instrumental in the international lighthouse community, and in 1929 delivered the keynote address at the International Lighthouse Conference in London.

IMPROVEMENT AND GROWTH

Putnam was always looking for ways to improve the work of the Lighthouse Service. He considered fog the greatest enemy to navigation, and looked for ways to improve air-transmitted fog signals. He increased the number of radio beacons along the Atlantic coast, adding approximately 1,500,000 square miles of water to the area served by U.S. aids to navigation. Radio transmitters and receivers greatly increased communication, especially for the very remote stations. They also allowed lightships to transmit distress calls for other ships in the area. In the Great Lakes, the number of vessels stranded decreased by 50% in the four years following the installation of radio beacons. Putnam gratefully relayed the story of a kind woman who, for years, sent a supply of radio equipment at Christmas to fill the needs of lighthouses and vessels. Perhaps the best testament to the use of the radio was the keeper’s comment, “It’s no longer lonesome on the Alaska stations.”

When George Putnam became Commissioner of Lighthouses, his employees in Washington were numbered at 54; field employees numbered 5778. When he retired in 1935, there were 40 employees in Washington, and 4940 field employees, a tribute to his acute organizational skills. All this was accomplished while the total number of aids to navigation doubled – from 12,000 to 24,000; lighted buoys increased from 225 to 1,650; automatic gas lights from 115 to 125, and the addition of radio beacons that Putnam perfected now numbered 110. Putnam’s departmental budget in 1929 (according to the New York Times) was $10,677,250. Today, that would approximate a budget of about $134,853,667.

Putnam’s restructuring of the Lighthouse Service paved the way for modernization to continue long after his retirement, which occurred when he reached the age of 70 in 1935. Because of Putnam’s improvements to United States lighthouses, the nation rose from sixth in shipping safety in 1920 to second in the world by 1935, with only the Netherlands holding a better safety record; however the territory of the United States is immensely larger. Putnam left a legacy that is still continuing to this day. In 2004, the United States Coast Guard created the George R. Putnam Inspirational Leadership Award to honor his legacy.

Upon his retirement, the New York Times published an editorial that said of him, “He was one of those quiet, capable, hardworking chiefs of the permanent government service of whom the general public hears little, but to whom it owes much. When you think of men of character and devotion, the “bureaucracy” loses its sting.”

RETIREMENT

George and his wife Marta purchased a summer home in Dorset, Vermont that they named Kilden, a Norwegian term for “spring” or “fountain.” This beloved summer place provided a haven away from the demanding Washington schedule. Kilden also afforded Putnam the opportunity to enjoy his hobbies of renovating and remodeling. In retirement, Putnam wrote several books and magazine articles while enjoying the changing seasons at his desk. He also enjoyed his grandchildren, who visited in the summers, exploring the brook behind the playhouse and swimming in a nearby quarry. The children remember his fascination with maps, saying, “He had a most beautiful topographical map of Vermont on the wall in Dorset; it measured about 6 feet by 8 feet and he would study it, tracing mountains and rivers with his hand.” In later years, the grandchildren remembered him wearing a white hat, walking with a cane as he went out to sit on the bench in the garden. Young granddaughter Lucy remembers offering to teach him how to walk; not quite comprehending his advanced age and the need for a slow gait.

Ever the perfectionist, Putnam was unhappy with the number of dandelions in his lawn. Visiting grandchildren were paid one penny for each yellow weed that was pulled from the lawn. They all remember Grandpa carefully counting the blossoms, and then, slowly, counting out the pennies, nickels, and dimes in payment. He also paid each child a penny when he mixed up their names. He was a strong guiding presence to his family, ever present at the head of the dining table, and seeing to order and organization in the household. He was in declining health in his later years, and died on July 2, 1953. He and wife Marta are resting under the pine trees in Maple Hill Cemetery in Dorset, Vermont, many miles from where he once was in charge of all of our nation’s lighthouses.

It seems appropriate to end this story with Putnam’s own words:

“Like the River of my boyhood, the current of my life has safely passed the snags and reefs, and has come at last to a sea of content. I am glad that I devoted my life to the public service. I am proud to have been able to help in making less hazardous the voyages of those who go down to the sea in ships. I am happiest of all to have been associated with, and to have been the leader of, a group of men and women loyal in their obedience to the ideals of good government, devoted to the service of humanity.”

The print edition contains more photographs and information that this online edition. To order a subscription or a single edition of the Digest, click here!

This story appeared in the Jul/Aug 2011 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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