Imperial County
Biographies
MUNSON J. DOWD
Munson J. Dowd occupies the responsible and important position of Chief Engineer and General Superintendent of the Imperial Irrigation District, with which he has thus been identified since 1925. He was born in Malden, Massachusetts, May 8, 1896, his parents being Merritt C. and Katherine (Baumeister) Dowd, natives of Connecticut and Pennsylvania, respectively. Merritt C. Dowd is now a resident of Pasadena, California, and is actively engaged in electrical work. He and his wife are the parents of two children, Munson J. and Mrs. Helen Humason.
Munson J. Dowd acquired his early education in the schools of Malden, Massachusetts, New York city and Pasadena, California, and received his professional training at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, from which he was graduated in 1918 with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. He is an honorary member of Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Psi, and he is also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Following his graduation from the California Institute of Technology he engaged in shipbuilding work in San Pedro for a year and subsequently spent three and one-half years in reclamation work in the state of Washington. He came to the Imperial Valley in 1922 and three years later was made Chief Engineer and General Superintendent of the Imperial Irrigation District, having since filled this very important position with the agency that supplies all water for irrigation purposes in the Imperial Valley. In 1931, he was appointed as a member of the California Districts Securities Commission, which regulates financing of irrigation districts, for a four-year term.
In 1915, in Pasadena, Mr. Dowd was united in marriage to Miss Neva S. White, of that city, daughter of Elliott A. and Elizabeth White. Mr. and Mrs. Dowd are the parents of three children, namely: Munson W., seventeen years of age, who is a student in the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena; Helen L., who is fourteen years of age; and Neva E., twelve years old. The family resides in the city of El Centro, where Mrs. Dowd figures actively in social affairs. Mr. Dowd is a member of the Rotary Club and he stands deservedly high in the confidence and esteem of all who know him.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages
229-230, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Joyce Rugeroni.
Golden Nugget Library's Imperial County Biographies