Byram Whitmore Steele (1970)

HASS, HUNKINS, JOHNSON, POLLOWICK, STEELE, WHITMORE

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler
Date: 7/3/2006 at 05:40:09

The Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Wednesday, December 2, 1970

Byrum W. Steele, a native of Madison county and member of a formerly prominent family in this community, died Nov. 6 at Coral Gables, Fla. where he had lived in recent years. He was 84 years of age.

Mr. Steele was a son of James P. and Clara Whitmore Steele, and was born in Madison county in 1886. He attended the Winterset schools and graduated from Iowa State college at Ames with a degree in civil engineering. He worked in general engineering for 10 years before joining the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 1920. He retired from government service in 1951.

During his years with the Reclamation Bureau, his greatest accomplishment was as supervisor of design for the Hoover dam over the Colorado river. He was associated with the investigation, design and construction of 125 dams of all types, including the American Falls and Grand Coulee dams. In 1936 he was appointed chief design engineer for the Tennessee Valley authority.

His father, James P. Steele, who lived in Madison county from 1874 until his death in 1936, was prominent in legal, banking and farming circles here over a long period of years.

Near surviving relatives include his wife, Olive; two daughters, Mrs. Margaret Hass of Coral Gables and Mrs. Helen Hunkins of Denver, Colo.; a stepson, William B. Pollowick of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. and a sister, Mrs. Louise Johnson of Oklahoma City, Okla.
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Coordinator's note: Correct first and middle names taken from his Iowa Delayed Certificate of Birth.

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