Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 23
BERNARD P. BELLPORT
1907-1987
BY J. D O N OVAN JAC O B S
BERNARD PHILIP BELLPORT had been a member of the
National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for seventeen years
at the time of this death on October 3, 1987. His participa-
tion in development of American water resources is an im-
portant chapter in the engineering saga Reclaiming the
West. Here are some memories of the man, as recalled by
friends who knew him well. Because he always preferred to
be addressed simply as Barney, that habit will not here be
broken.
Barney entered this world May 25, 1907, in the small
town of LaCrosse, Kansas. His father, also Bernard P., passed
away while Barney was an infant. When the child became
eight, his mother, Louise, packed their belongings and with
her son traveled westward to a new home in Merced, Cali-
fornia.
The lad attended grammar school in Merced ancl high
school in Palo Alto. After high school, Barney matricu-
lated in Polytechnic College of Engineering in Oakland.
He graduated from Polytechnic in 1927 with a B.S. in mining
engineering. Shortly thereafter he was hired by St. Joseph
Lead Company as assistant engineer-geologist. He clid un-
derground exploration work for them until the mines suc-
cumbed to the great depression in 1931. His mining ca-
reer had been brief but productive. He had learned the
23
OCR for page 24
24
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
practicalities of underground operations and had acquired
a colorful vocabulary.
Disregarding the depression, Barney succeeded in selling
himself as a civil engineer to Phoenix Utility Company that
was laying natural gas lines in Butte and Helena for Montana
Power Company. When the pipe lines were completed, he
rustled a field engineering job with Montana Highway De-
partment. He worked for the state until 1935 when a depleted
treasury forced the department to cancel dozens of contracts
and lay off hundreds of manual en c} technical employees,
including Engineer BelIport.
During the following months, Barney learned a lot about
hardship caused by economic collapse. Further employment
prospects in Montana were bleak, so he packed his wife
and baby daughter into the old car and headed back to
California where, at least, winter heating bills were Tower.
Home again, he picked up whatever odd jobs came his way,
and took a government civil service examination for junior
engineer. Early in 1936 Barney was notified by the U.S.
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, that a
transitman position was available in Antioch. He grabbed
it.
Antioch was headquarters for the Bureau's California Canal
Division. During seven years there, Barney climbed the
ladder from surveyor to director of all office engineering
for three major projects: Contra Costa and Delta Mendota
Canal, Delta Cross Canal, and Tracy Pumping Plant. In
1952 he was promoted to construction engineer in charge
of all operations on the Solano project.
In 1957 Barney became director of the Bureau's Region
2, headquartered in Sacramento. There he was responsible
for direction and execution of an integrated program for
beneficial use of water within a region that enveloped a
major portion of California plus contiguous areas in Nevada
and southern Oregon. After two years in Sacramento, Beliport
was summoned to Denver to become deputy to Chief Engineer
Grant Bloodgood.
OCR for page 25
BERNARD P. BELLPORT
25
When Bloodgood retired in 1963, Bellport succeeded him
as chief engineer of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. In
this position he had jurisdiction over design, administration,
and construction of Bureau projects in seventeen western
states and Alaska. Approximately five thousand technical
employees served under him. Outstanding examples in a
long list of BelIport-administered projects include Morrow
Point Dam in Colorado, the highest double-curvature thin-
arch dam in the United States; Third Power Project at Grand
Coulee Dam, eventually to become the world's largest single
power facility; Monticello concrete arch dam in California;
San Luis earth dam in California; Glen Canyon and Flaming
Gorge Dams on the Colorado River; and joint development
of Intertie, the nation's first and the world's longest extra-
high-voltage direct current power line.
Barney possessed an uncanny ability to sort out competent
employees and assign them to adaptable jobs. He thrived
on hard work and, in that respect, set a good example for
his associates. Denver office hours began at 7:30 A.M. but
Barney usually arrived at 6:30. He had found that he could
accomplish more in that one morning hour than in any
three hours during the normal day.
Ever an advocate of innovation, Barney strove to encourage
inventiveness among his designers. His frequent admonition,
"Forget the way grandpa did it. Let's do it better!" inspired
the appearance of surreptitious signs in the drafting rooms
like "Hell with grandpa!" On the wall in Barney's private
office hung a picture of a turtle under locomotion. The
sign beneath it read, "He makes progress only when he
sticks his neck out."
Although his official hitching post was in Denver, the
chief engineer made frequent trips to visit field operations.
Barney's wife, Mabe (for Maybelle), accompanied him on
many of these jaunts. She was enthusiastically interested in
construction and asked so many questions that many of the
staff believed that she too was an engineer.
As time permitted, BelIport would carefully review the
OCR for page 26
26
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
work output of his staff. From his breast pocket always
protruded a large red-tipped felt pen. A vivid red question
mark on a drawing or document was recognized by all as a
signal saying, 'Will the originator please come in and explain?"
His critiques, however, were usually sprinkled with wry hu-
mor to make them palatable.
Barney BelIport was a popular boss, respected and liked
by Bureau employees. That admiration was shared by most
contractors on Bureau jobs. He advocated fair and reasonable
specifications and equitable compensation, and believed that
lower costs resulted from a healthy contracting industry.
Nevertheless, he carefully guarded the interests of his employer,
the government, and its taxpayers. He made friends among
union officials by promoting fair working agreements and
job safety.
On the other hand, the chiefs job was not all sweetness
and goodwill. Political harassment was an inescapable an-
noyance. In our democracy, public disputes over water
rights are bound to occur and be dropped into the laps of
Washington politicians. Beliport's office was an interface
between political controversy and physical accomplishment.
His unbroken service through three federal administrations
speaks well for his diplomatic skills.
Barney managed to spare time from his Bureau commit-
ments to engage in extracurricular efforts as long as they
were in the interest of better engineering. His committee
involvement included memberships on the National Research
Council's (NRC) Committee on Rapid Excavation; the NRC
U.S. National Committee on Tunneling Technology; the
U.S. Committee on Large Dams; the U.S. Committee on
Irrigation, Drainage and Flood Control; and the Colorado
State Research Advisory Committee. He was past president
of the Colorado Chapter of American Society of Civil Engineers.
He authored more than seventy published articles or public
presentations on technical subjects.
Of the many honors that came his way, Barney most
cherished his membership in the National Academy of En-
OCR for page 27
BERNARD P. BELLPORT
27
gineering. He also received from the U.S. Department of
the Interior its highest honor, the Gold Medal Award for
Distinguished Service in 1967. The Beavers, a national
organization of construction men, presented to him their
Golden Beaver Award for Engineering in 1968. He was
also named one of the American Public Works Association's
Top Ten Public Works Leaders of the Year in 1970.
As mandated by the Civil Service Code, time arrived for
Barney's retirement. On March 3l, 1972, he turned over
his office keys and red felt pen to his successor, Mr. Harold
Aldrich.
A few months after retirement, Barney and Mabe sold
their Denver home, said farewell to their many friends there,
and flew back to California to a retirement home they had
purchased in the community of Rossmoor in Contra Costa
County, east of San Francisco. In Rossmoor, Barney kept
as professionally occupied as he wished by accepting inter-
mittent consulting assignments. To fill the gaps, he kept
current on engineering affairs and restored antique furniture.
On October 3, 1987, Barney BelIport died as a result of a
massive cerebral hemorrhage. He is survived by Mabe, who
still resides in Contra Costa; his daughter, Mrs. Louise Garcia
of Dallas, Texas; and son, Barry, a stockbroker in San Francisco.
OCR for page 28
Representative terms from entire chapter:
contra costa
