A colorful administrator is credited with establishing the basic location of Arizona's billion-dollar Interstate Highway System. He served twice as State Engineer, from 1924 to 1928 and from 1945 to 1951, and devoted much of his final term to curbing diversion of state highway user revenues to purposes other than road-building. His varied career also included work as a road-builder, railroad civil engineer, city engineer, county engineer, chief of police, engineer with the Public Works Administration, naval commander in World War II, Phoenix city manager, and Phoenix postmaster.