Clinton Sumner Burns

Clinton Sumner Burns (1871–1924) was a prominent civil engineer and business executive who, with Robert Emmett McDonnell, a classmate at Stanford University formed an engineering company under the firm name of Burns & McDonnell. His work involved practically every state in the country, designing water and sewer systems in over five hundred cities as well as being an honorary member of the Sigma Xi.

In 2010, Burns and McDonnell were inducted into the Greater Kansas City Business Hall of Fame.

Early life and career Clinton Sumner Burns was born at Waverly Iowa on October 26, 1871, the son of Heman Hoit Burns (1842-1917) and Laura Root Burns (1845-1881). His early education was obtained in the public schools at Port Byron NY where he lived with his grandmother and at Cornell University. "The Diary of a Young Engineer", The Stanford Illustrated Review, Volume 25, Issue 8. Accessed 12 December 2020

Patents Burns was awarded two patents in the United States: 1259833A-Pipe joints 1130885A-Device for flushing toilets on railway coaches

Death and legacy Burns died on April 1, 1924. He worked in "practically every State in the Union."

Burns's advice to consulting engineers was to recognize that the "(C)ompetition will come not from other members of the engineering profession but from land surveyors who claim to be engineers and from the horde of salesmen and representatives of contracting companies who offer to make plans and specifications for practically nothing in consideration for which the interested company is to be given the order for certain or awarded the contract for constructing the plant. Such propositions will never appeal to a good businessman, but unfortunately, an engineer's clients are oftentimes not far-sighted in such matters. The practicing engineer cannot hope to secure much business along this branch of the profession until he has a reputation for absolute honesty untainted commissions or connections with construction companies." - Stanford Illustrated Review, Volume 25, Issue 8, pg 434.