Williams, Donald A.

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Donald Alfred Williams (1905-1982) was born in Clark County, South Dakota, on July 14, 1905. After graduating from Clark County High School in 1923, he attended South Dakota State College of Agriculture & Mechanical Arts and received his degree in engineering in 1928. From 1927 through 1934, He worked as an engineer in Mitchell, Sioux Falls, and Senator, South Dakota; farmed at Clark, South Dakota; and did postgraduate work at his alma mater and at the University of South Dakota. Following employment with the state highway department at Pierre, South Dakota, he entered duty with the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) on June 3, 1935, as superintendent of the Civilian Conservation Corps camp at Presho, South Dakota. He served as an engineer on SCS projects at Great Falls, Montana, Emmett, Idaho, and Dayton, Washington from November 1935 to June 1939. He then served as the area office engineer at Spokane, Washington, until moving to the Northwest Regional Office at Portland, Oregon as assistant regional director in September 1941. In March 1950, he became the flood control survey officer in the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture in Washington, DC. His appointment as assistant chief of the Service in charge of operations came in July 1951. Beginning in March 1953, Williams was administrator of the Agricultural Conservation Program Service until the Secretary of Agriculture appointed him administrator of the Soil Conservation Service on November 27, 1953. He remained as administrator until retiring from the government on January 11, 1969. He served as a consultant on soil and water conservation to the governments of India, Turkey, New Zealand, and Thailand. Additionally, he made four trips to India for the Ford Foundation in 1967-68, 1971, and 1973. He resided in New Delhi from April 1969 to April 1971 while serving as an advisor to India''s Soil and Water Conservation Board for the Ford Foundation. This consulting work dealt with soil and water conservation, especially programming, organization, administration, and technical expertise. Professionally, he is best known for his contributions to conservation irrigation and integrating water management into the concept of soil and water conservation. He received the following awards: an honorary doctorate from South Dakota State College (1956), the Distinguished Service Award of the Department of Agriculture (1958), the Rockefeller Public Service Award for Public Administration from Princeton University (1967), the Hugh Hammond Bennett Award from the Soil Conservation Society of America (1967), and the Distinguished Engineer Award from South Dakota State University (1977). He was selected as a fellow and life member of the Soil Conservation Society of America and of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The Soil Conservation Society of America established a fellowship in conservation in his name in 1969. He died on November 12, 1982, in Virginia.

From the description of Williams, Donald A. (Donald Alfred), 1905-1982 (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration). naId: 10677879

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Birth 1905

Death 1982

English

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