Walter Frank Dixon
Walter Frank Dixon (1865-1935) of the Singer Manufacturing Co of New Jersey
1935 Obituary [1]
WALTER FRANK DIXON was associated with the Singer Manufacturing Company for the greater part of his professional career.
He was born in London in 1865 and at the age of 17 he became an apprentice in the Motive Power Department of the West Shore Railroad, U.S.A. After completing a three years' apprenticeship, he joined the Barney and Smith Car Company of Dayton, Ohio, as a draughtsman.
In the following year he went to New York City as chief draughtsman to Mr. George S. Strong, consulting engineer.
From 1889 to 1891 he took charge of the erection of new locomotive workshops by the Cooke Locomotive Company, of Paterson, New Jersey, after which he joined the Rogers Locomotive Works, also in Paterson, as chief draughtsman. He then went to Russia as chief engineer of the locomotive department at the new Sormovo Works, Nijni Novgorod. He superintended the erection of the entire plant and took charge when manufacturing began.
In 1900 he was appointed manager of the Singer Manufacturing Company's plant at Podolsk, Russia, and held this position until 1917, when he returned to the United States and was made special representative of the general management of the company. He became works manager to the company at Elizabethport, New Jersey, in 1920, and four years later he was also appointed vice-president of the electrical division of the company, the Diehl Manufacturing Company.
Mr. Dixon was the author of several papers read before various American engineering societies. He was also a recipient of the Imperial Russian Order of St. Stanislau and St. Anna.
His death occurred on 17th June 1935.
He had been a Member of the Institution since 1897.