ABSTRACT
DIXON J.W. 01.04. 1905 Burlington IA/USA 04.12. 1978 Arlington VA/USA John Wesley Dixon was educated at University of Iowa, receiving the BE and ME degrees in 1927 and 1940. He was from 1927 to 1940 a member of the US Corps of Engineers, working at St. Louis MO and Rock Island IL, joining then the Public Works Project Review Section, Washington DC, as chief of the Water Resources Section until 1943. In 1945 he acted as engineering assistant to the Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation USBR, Washington DC, and from 1946 to 1954 he was the Director of Project Planning USBR. Dixon was member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Geophysical Union, the Permanent International Association of Navigation Congresses PIANC, and the International Commission of Irrigation and Drainage ICID. Dixon published during his career numerous reports to the Congress on proposed public works and water resources developments as official federal documents. These include particularly projects sponsored by the World Bank in which he was involved in the design and construction stages. He was also an author of books on environmental engineering related to the economic analysis, and on the relation between dams and the environment, which has been a major topic first in the USA starting in the 1960s, and eventually spreading to the other continents. He acted as chairman of the US Sections of two international engineering boards. He also was a consultant to the Middle East from 1954 to 1956. Further he was assistant to the president of Harza Engineering Company from then, becoming its chief hydraulic engineer and special assistant of this large firm founded by Leroy F. Harza (1882-1953), then taken over by son Richard D. Harza (1923-). Dixon was the recipient of the John Dunlap Memorial Award from the Iowa Engineering Section in 1940. Anonymous (1927). John W. Dixon. Hawkeye yearbook: 71. University of Iowa: Iowa. P Anonymous (1945). Jack W. Dixon. Engineering News-Record 134(Mar.8): 154. P Anonymous (1964). Dixon, John A. Who’s who in engineering 9: 460. Lewis: New York. Dixon, J.W. (1952). Social and economic implications of irrigation development. Civil Engineering 22(8): 689-690; 22(9): 834-835; 22(9): 839. Dixon, J.W. (1953). Planning an irrigation project today. Centennial Trans. ASCE: 357-387. Hufschmidt, M.M., James, D.B., Meister, A.D., Bower, B.T., Dixon, J.A. (1983). Environment, natural systems and development: An economic valuation guide. The Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore MD.
