Charles Peter Berkey

Charles Peter Berkey (March 25, 1867 – April 22, 1955) was an American geologist, notable as a founder of the discipline of engineering geology, for his work on the great dams of the 1930s, and as chief geologist on the Gobi Desert expeditions in Mongolia led by Roy Chapman Andrews in the 1920s.

Early life and education Born in Goshen, Indiana, Berkey grew up on farms in Indiana, then Texas, and ultimately Minnesota, graduating from Farmington High School. He enrolled in the University of Minnesota in 1889, receiving his undergraduate degree in 1892 and continuing to receive a Ph.D. in geology in 1897 (the first to be awarded by the university). His teachers included Newton Horace Winchell (whose son, Alexander Newton Winchell he later himself taught). Berkey's thesis became the foundational reference for the study of the Dalles of the St. Croix River, a scenic area of 60 square miles on the Minnesota-Wisconsin boundary. is still reprinted as a classic. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1927, cited for his Mongolia work. In 1950 the Geological Society of America published Application of Geology to Engineering Practice in his honor.

Berkey served for many years as head of Columbia's geology department.

Retirement He retired from Columbia in 1932 to live with his wife Minnie (née Best) in Palisades, New Jersey. In 1947 he was asked to evaluate several proposed sites for the United Nations and opined that the East River site was "the best place in the world," not for engineering reasons but, "with Grand Central station near-by and the Radio City Music Hall for a movie after a hard day." He was 88 when he died in 1955.