Eugene Joseph Peltier (1910-2004) Papers (KC0417)

Eugene J. Peltier was born in Concordia, Kansas, on March 28, 1910. He attended schools in Concordia and was graduated with honors receiving the degree of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Kansas State College, Manhattan, Kansas, in 1933. He did postgraduate work there toward a Master's degree in 1934. Thereafter, until 1940, he was a Resident Engineer with the Kansas Highway Commission. Commissioned Lieutenant (jg) in the U.S. Naval Reserve on April 30, 1936, he transferred to the Civil Engineer Corps of the U.S. Navy in the rank of Commander in June 1946, and was promoted to the rank of Captain, on July 1, 1952.

Reporting for active duty in July 1940, he served until July 1942 as Assistant Public Works Officer at the Naval Training Station, Great Lakes, Illinois. He was then transferred to Boston, Massachusetts, where he was Senior Assistant to the Superintending Civil Engineer, Area I, Boston, Massachusetts, until November 1944. During the next three months he had instruction at the Naval Construction Battalion Center, Davisville, Rhode Island, and in February 1945 reported as Officer in Charge, 137th Naval Construction Battalion, which landed on Okinawa. At the war's end, in September 1945, he formed and became Officer in Charge of the 54th Naval Construction Regiment also on Okinawa.

Returning to the United States in December 1945, he reported as Public Works Officer on the staff of the Commander Naval Technical Training Command, Pensacola, Florida, and Memphis, Tennessee. He remained in that assignment for three years, and from March 1949 until May 1951 served as Public Works Officer of the Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida. During that period he had additional duty on the staff of Commander Naval Air Bases, Sixth Naval District.

In May 1951 he was ordered to the Fourteenth Naval District, Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, where for two years he was District Public Works Officer and Officer in Charge of Construction; Public Works Officer for the Naval Base; From July 1953 to December 1953 he was Executive Assistant to Assistant Chief for Operations, Bureau of Yards and Docks, Navy Department, Washington, DC and was Assistant Chief for Maintenance and Material from December 1953 until February 1956. He was then ordered to duty as Commanding Officer of the Naval Construction Battalion Center, Port Hueneme, California.

Appointed Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, and Chief of Civil Engineers of the U.S. Navy, on October 30, 1957, he took the oath of Office, administered by the Judge Advocate General in the Office of the Secretary of the Navy on December 2, 1957.

Rear Admiral Peltier has the Naval Reserve Medal; the American Defense Service Medal; the American Campaign Medal; Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one engagement star; World War II Victory Medal; Navy Occupation Service Medal; and the National Defense Service Medal.

After serving as U.S. Chief of Civil Engineers from 1957 to 1962, Admiral Peltier joined Sverdrup & Parcel, where he became president and director (1967 to 1975) and chief executive officer (1972 to 1975). He was named one of the Top Ten Public Works Men of the Year in 1960; was decorated with the Legion of Merit; and received the Award of Merit from the Construction Engineers Council in 1962. He served as president of the Society of Military Engineers (1960-1961), of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (1973-1974) and of the Public Works Historical Society (1977-1978). He is a registered professional engineer in Missouri, New York, Kansas, Florida, Virginia, and California.

Rear Admiral Peltier is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, member of the American Concrete Institute, and member and director of the Society of American Military Engineers; and holds member-ship in the Sigma Tau and Phi Kappa Phi fraternities, Kansas State College Chapters.

He and Mrs. Peltier, the former Lena Evelyn Gennette of Aurora, Kansas (1908-1988),  had five children: Marion Joyce, Eugene Joseph, Jr., Carole Josephine, Kenneth Noel, and Judith Ann Peltier. Admiral Peltier died February 13, 2004 and was interred in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.

The collection consists of several scrapbooks, photographs, personal and professional correspondence and related papers.  1934-1991.

Nineteen cubic feet.

INVENTORY 

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updated: Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Kansas City
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