Homer L. Ferguson

Homer Lenoir Ferguson (March 6, 1873 – March 14, 1953) was an author and businessman. He was president of Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia, from July 22, 1915, through July 31, 1946. off Queenstown on the Irish coast. Another 127 Americans also lost their lives. The Lusitania incident was among the events that brought the United States into World War I. When Albert Hopkins died, Ferguson had been a vice president in the company for three years. By a unanimous decision by the company's Board of directors, he was elected to the presidency the following August. In that capacity, he was to see the company through both world wars.

As war clouds loomed over the U.S. in 1917, Ferguson had a major role in the development of Hilton Village, located just northwest of the shipyard. In January 1918, Ferguson appeared before a United States Senate subcommittee investigating shipyard conditions. Ferguson was very persuasive regarding the impact of the war effort on the lack of housing for shipyard workers. With preliminary designs in hand and with the shipyard's offer to purchase land for the project, Ferguson was able to secure a $1.2 million appropriation to begin construction immediately. The Hilton Village project was the first of its kind and is recognized today as a pioneering urban planning project. Hilton Village served as the prototype of approximately 100 similar wartime government housing projects. After the war, in 1922, Henry E. Huntington, who had a close relationship with Ferguson, acquired it from the government, and helped facilitate the sale of the homes to shipyard employees and other local residents.

Ferguson and his wife, the former Eliza Anderson Skinner, raised five children and were active in many civic affairs in Newport News and Warwick County. He was president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, 1919–1920.

At the shipyard, Homer Ferguson served until July 31, 1946, after the Second World War had ended on both the European and Pacific fronts. As a noted community leader, he was a co-founder of the Mariners' Museum with Archer M. Huntington and his wife, sculptor Anna Hyatt. Ferguson remained active with the museum until his death.

Homer L. Ferguson died in 1953 of a heart attack at the age of 80. A few years later, his widow joined Martha Woodroof Hiden, another widow of a community leader (Phillip W. Hiden, a former Mayor of Newport News) in cutting the ceremonial ribbon to note the recombining of the former Warwick County, Virginia (which became an independent city in 1952) with Newport News, which had separated from the county to become a separate independent city in 1896, forming the consolidated "new" City of Newport News in 1958.

Legacy The former Homer L. Ferguson High School of Newport News Public Schools was named for him.

At the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, the Ferguson Society, named for Ferguson, is a patron society for those who donate $1,000 – $2,499. Ferguson, along with the Huntington family, laid the foundation for the Museum.

"Ferguson Avenue" in the National Register of Historic Places neighborhood of Hilton Village is named after Ferguson.