William Colgate Eaton

William Colgate Eaton (February 4, 1851 – June 1, 1936) was a commodore in the United States Navy and professor of engineering at Madison University (now Colgate University). He was also a noted numismatist and Freemason.

Eaton graduated from Madison with an A.B. in 1869, an A.M. in 1872, and a PhD in 1881. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1874. He served in various capacities as a naval officer, chiefly in the Department of Engineering. Eaton was appointed head of the engineering department at Madison University in 1888–1890. From 1891 to 1894 he served in the Asiatic Squadron. In 1892 he was appointed by Li Hongzhang as examiner of naval engineering graduates at Imperial Tientsin University, China. He then served as fleet engineer of the Pacific Squadron 1899–1900. During the Spanish–American War he was chief engineer on the , which participated in the bombardment of San Juan. After the war he was commissioned chief engineer. He retired at his own request as commodore in 1908. During World War I, Eaton was recalled to service as Inspector of Engineering Material and Ordnance in Cincinnati.

Numismatics Eaton was a member of the American Numismatic Association and was a collector of Civil War tokens. He drilled two holes in each cent so that he could string them together in a seven-foot chain. Eaton was "one of the pioneers of Lincoln Cent collecting, and perhaps the only person to take this activity seriously within the numismatic community at the time". He contributed articles to The Numismatist.